The country’s top infectious disease expert said Thursday a more infectious strain of the coronavirus may be emerging.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made the claim Thursday in an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Fauci said the research suggests that Italy was devastated by a different strain of the coronavirus than the one that originated in Wuhan, China.
The main difference between the two, Fauci said, is that the Italian version passes from person to person more effectively, making it even more difficult to contain.
“It just seems like the virus replicates better and may be more transmissible,” said Fauci.
The study he referenced, which was published by researchers affiliated with the Sheffield COVID-19 Genomics Group, states that the new strain “has become the most frequent form in the global pandemic.”
However, the researchers also found no evidence that this new strain causes worse symptoms than the original.
As of Thursday, the United States had more than 2.7 million confirmed cases, the highest in the world.
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