New York’s own-produced variant COVID-19 may be infecting people who have already had the virus or have even been vaccinated, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration said Sunday.
Dr. Scott Gottlieb said it is still unclear whether the COVID-19 variant, known as B.1.526, is causing viral surges in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.
“What we don’t understand with 1,526 is if people get infected again and if people who might have been vaccinated get infected now,” Gottlieb said. said Margaret Brennan, CBS anchor, on “Face the Nation.”
The New York variant contains a mutation similar to the South African variant B.1.351, which has been shown “in certain cases” to re-infect people who have already had the error, Gottlieb said.
“It simply came to our notice then [B.1.526] is responsible for some of the increases we are seeing in New York right now and whether this is the beginning of a new outbreak in the city, ”he said.
The former Trump administration official said public health experts currently do not have enough data to draw clear conclusions.
He asked the CDC to work with New York officials to identify possible B.1.526-linked coronavirus reinfections, which warned that “they are probably more common than we are detecting.
“They need to market doctors aggressively, asking doctors to report and report cases where there are situations where people who were previously infected with COVID may become infected again,” he said of the federal agency.
“We don’t know that’s happening, but anecdotally, some doctors are reporting it now, and that could explain why you’re seeing an increase in cases.”
Gottlieb said the federal government’s vaccination effort should serve as a “counterpart” to another wave of COVID-19 cases, but warned that actions to reopen business by officials in New York and other states they could lead to an “increase” in cases.
“It simply came to our notice then. March has always been a difficult month. People want to lean forward, but we should have waited until April, ”he said.
“The fact that we’ve done it now means we’ll probably go to the plateau. We may see an increase in certain parts of the country.”
COVID-19 variants, including versions B.1.526, account for more than half of New York City’s new coronavirus cases, city health officials reported earlier this month.
On Saturday, Governor Andrew Cuomo’s office announced the city’s first confirmed case of the Brazilian variant P.1, which like the New York variant may make vaccines less effective.
“While further research is warranted, researchers at Oxford University have recently published peer-reviewed data indicating that variant P.1 may be less resistant to current vaccines than originally thought,” he said. say the governor’s office.