Christina Mathers, a member of the medical staff, attends the patient, holding the patient’s hand in the CIVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas, on December 21, 2020.
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The new coronavirus strain, first discovered in the United Kingdom, may be circulating in the United States without notice already, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.
This type has not yet been seen in the US, while the CDC notes that scientists have not indexed the genetic coding for many Covid-19 infections here. The agency said “out of 17 million U.S. cases, only about 51,000 have been infected with the virus,” so that new strains could be noted.
The CDC said in a statement that the ongoing travel between the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as the current prevalence in the UK, increase the likelihood of such a prevalence of imports. “A small portion of the U.S. infections are sequential, given the variable already found in the United States.
The CDC said the new variant is currently referred to as “SARS-COVI-2 VUI 202012/01”. It became prevalent in south-east England in November and accounted for 60% of recent infections in London, the agency said. The CDC said it did not know why a new strain of the virus had emerged, but that it could have happened “by chance alone.”
The CDC said that, alternatively, it could emerge as it is more suitable for spreading in humans. “Scientists in the UK are concerned about this rapid shift from a rare strain to a normal strain, which is urgently assessing the different types of stress and the symptoms of the disease.”
The CDC noted that the new coronavirus “changes regularly”, but most of the changes are negligible. The significance of the new variant first discovered in the UK has not yet been determined, but the CDC notes that based on preliminary data from the UK, the new strain may be “transmissible more quickly than other rotating strains.”
The CDC notes that there have been several mutations in the coronavirus, saying scientists are studying how it has affected its ability to spread or made it more lethal or the result of a mild infection.
Scientists are also looking at whether the changes make testing less effective, the CDC added, adding that the Covid-19 tests are designed to detect viruses in a variety of ways, “even if the change affects one of the targets, other PCR targets.” Still working. “
The mutation could potentially reduce the effectiveness of monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of the virus, the CDC said. Monoclonal antibody treatments, such as those of President Donald Trump, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, have been cited as some of the life-saving tools in the fight against the virus.
“Of these possibilities, the ability to avoid the last-vaccine-induced immunity will probably be the most concerning because once a large portion of the population is vaccinated, there will be immune pressures that could selectively accelerate such emergencies. CDC for ‘Escape Mutants’ “There is no evidence of this and most experts believe that escape mutants are unlikely to emerge due to the nature of the virus.”
Tsar of President Donald Trump’s coronavirus vaccine, Dr. Monsef Sloy, said Monday that he expects Pfizer and Modern’s Covid-19 shots to be effective against new strains.
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