Covida variant easier to spread in vaccine emergencies for American amplifiers

Photographer: Eric Lee / Bloomberg

An easier-to-spread variant of Covid-19 first detected in the United States last week could intensify the rise of the virus, if it has not already done so, increasing the urgency of a faster and more effective vaccine boost.

Only three states – Colorado, California and Florida – have it identified cases of the mutated strain that had been occurring in the UK for months. But U.S. health officials say they still don’t know how far the variant may have traveled in the United States or what it might mean for the future.

“I suspect it’s more widespread than we know,” said Michelle Barron, senior medical director of infection prevention and control. UCHealth, a healthcare system with a dozen hospitals and hundreds of clinics in Colorado. “It is a function of” if you search for it, you will find it “.

The discovery of the mutant strain in the U.S. comes as the drive to vaccinate most Americans has been hampered by ineffective coordination and a lack of federal support for states and health systems. Although more than 4.28 million Americans had been vaccinated since Saturday evening, according to Bloomberg vaccine tracker, is far less than the 20 million doses planned by U.S. health officials by the end of 2020.

Meanwhile, the number of infections is rising, with nearly 231,000 new cases registered in the United States on Thursday before the holiday weekend, when notification can be sporadic. Four states, including New York and California, have surpassed one million infections in general and more than 350,000 Americans have died.

“It’s a career, and this variant has made the whole challenge more formidable,” said Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translation Institute in La Jolla, California. “Everything we saw in 2020 when it comes to a challenging virus will be taken to a new level.”

Distribution of vaccines it has been a challenge for an American healthcare system strained by a concurrent increase in infections. State and local governments are struggling with complex logistics to keep the shots cool, deciding who should access early and persuade vaccine skeptics.

To increase the amount of vaccine available, the US government is considering halving the dose of the vaccine. The shot of Moderna Inc. given the age of 18 to 55, Moncef Slaoui, chief scientist of Operation Warp Speed, told CBS’s “Face the Nation.” He said there is evidence that the half dose provides the same level of protection for this age group.

Slaoui’s comments answered a question about the UK’s decision to get as many people as possible the first dose of vaccine from Pfizer Inc. i BioNTech SE, although it possibly delays a second dose. He said this change would be a mistake for the United States as it was not supported by test data.

CDC Studies

Meanwhile, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is currently trying to model the effect the variant could have on accelerating the spread, according to Kristen Nordlund, a spokeswoman for the agency. At this time, however, “we have no results,” Nordlund said in an email.

Prior to November, only a select number of cases had been sequenced in the United States, a laboratory procedure that can determine the genetic composition of the pathogen as it travels through the population. Since then, however, the CDC has launched a national program to detect new strains, said Greg Armstrong, director of the CDC’s advanced molecular detection program.

The CDC is now escalating Until according to Armstrong, it sequences 750 samples separately each week, and the agency partners with laboratories across the country to weekly map the genetic material of some 1,750 virus samples.

The agency is also exploring whether the mutations could make existing treatments less effective, according to Henry Walke, the CDC’s Covid-19 incident manager. Still, there is no reason for measures such as wearing a mask and social distancing to be less effective in preventing the transmission of the new strain, he said during a call to reporters last week.

Mutant viruses

Viruses have a chance to change through mutations that arise naturally as they replicate and circulate through their hosts. Some, like the flu, evolve rapidly with thousands of different mutations and lineages, while others are more stable.

The new variant, known scientifically as B.1.1.7, contains a large number of mutations, which is unusual, said Andy Pekosz, director of the Center for Emerging Viruses and Infectious Diseases of Johns Hopkins University. Of particular concern is the change in the spike protein, which binds to human cells, allowing the virus to enter.

Scientists suspect that these mutations facilitate the binding of spike protein. The new strain is thought to be 57% to 70% more transmissible than other strains of the virus.

Prevalence of the United Kingdom

In the UK, the new variant was responsible for 62% of Covid-19 infections in London the week ending December 9, up from 28% in early November, according to Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of London. Norwich School of Medicine, University of East Anglia. Cases have also been identified in more than a dozen countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Singapore and South Korea.

In Colorado, state scientists are trying to do a complete genetic sequencing on any sample that shows signs of the UK variant, according to state scientific director Emily Travanty. Samples are labeled when only two of the three target genes of the gold standard PCR tests used by the state are found, indicating that a mutation has occurred in the third, the critical spike protein.

According to Travanty, the missing gene is present, but was made undetectable by the test due to the mutation, making it a signature of the variant, he said. When labs find this red flag, it indicates that more research is needed.

Very unknown

“There are a lot of things we don’t know about this variant,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said last week after the first U.S. case in his state was discovered. “But if it’s transmitted faster, more people will get it and more people will be hospitalized.”

However, there are some positive findings related to the variant. Apparently, it is no more deadly, although if there were more people infected, there would be more deaths. And it is not believed to be able to surpass the two vaccines that are already being distributed in the United States, the Pfizer Inc.—Shot of BioNTech SE and the Modern Shooting Inc.

“Here’s some good news,” Topol said. “It will not affect the effectiveness of the vaccine. That’s why there’s this race. If we move this forward and vaccinate everyone, if we do it quickly, we will have this virus under control. “

Transmission speed

Meanwhile, in the UK, the added transmission speed that is believed to be related to the new strain has been noticed. The number of new cases has risen sharply in recent weeks, even as the country established increasingly tight closures, said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy. University of Minnesota.

In the United States, the use of masks and social distancing has often been more of a political issue than a public health one, with at least one adviser to President Donald Trump suggesting herd immunity, which occurs when enough people are makes it immune to a disease to make it spread unlikely, it can be reached simply by releasing the disease.