PINELLAS COUNTY, Florida – The new and seemingly most contagious variant of coronavirus, which first appeared in the UK, is spreading in the United States. Colorado and California have a confirmed case. Although not reported in Florida, a USF scientist says the new strain is likely already here.
“So if you’re already in Colorado and California, you’re probably already here in Florida,” said Dr. Michael Teng, a virologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of South Florida.
While the variant appears to be more transmissible, it is not more deadly.
“It’s here, but it’s not something to worry about,” Dr. Teng said.
Health experts say our vaccines should be as effective at handling the variant as our current strain of the virus, once inoculated to the general public. But there is great concern.
“We’re not really doing much active surveillance for that right now,” Dr. Teng said.
Colorado and California officials used genetic sequencing to discover the new strain, but this type of screening is not as widespread in the US.
“The UK has put a lot of effort into it and has done a pretty good job of sequencing, like 7% of all cases. The US, on the other hand, sequencing around 0.3%. That’s 20 times less than the UK, “he said.
Dr. Teng cites the latest data from the GISAID Initiative, which provides open access to global coronavirus genomic data.
Sequencing is a powerful tool in the fight against coronavirus. It allows scientists to track and control the virus. They might point out how one type of virus caused an outbreak and figure out a plan to contain it by the community. It also allows them to see how the virus has changed and whether a mutation negatively affects the effectiveness of our current vaccines.
“We are the world leader in advanced genomics research [but] by the number of cases we have, the U.S. is a 43rd thing in the world in genome sequencing, ”Dr. Teng said.
Isabel Rosales
It’s like flying without radar.
“The next variant may be one of those variants that we don’t really want in our community, that can cause the vaccine to lose some of its effectiveness. It would be very bad. We’re able to detect it. But if we don’t look for it. We will never find it, ”he said.
He says the United States already has the brilliant minds and technology to keep up with UK production.
“It’s not the lack of capacity in the United States. It is the lack of a really well-defined program that has a strong leadership and an impetus to do so, ”he said.
Dr. Teng believes it is up to the American public to pressure leaders to get more sequencing.
“What we want to do is try to tell leaders to do it and track it because we really need to be able to track it,” he said.
On Thursday, December 31, the FDOH confirmed a case of the new variant in Florida.
Florida has evidence of the first identified case of the UK COVID-19 variant in Martin County. The individual is a man in his twenties with no travel history. The Department is working with the CDC on this investigation. We encourage everyone to continue practicing COVID-19 mitigation.
– Florida Dept. Health (@HealthyFla) January 1, 2021