A new, more transmissible variant of coronavirus first discovered in the UK has been detected in 10 US states, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which warns that it could become the variant dominant circulation in the United States. in March.
The variant, known as B.1.1.7, is believed to be twice as transmissible as the current version of the virus circulating in the US, but so far there is no evidence that it causes more serious diseases or is transmitted differently.
Its rapid spread will increase the burden on health resources at a time when infections are increasing, further undermining scarce health resources and increasing the need for better adherence to mitigation strategies, such as social distancing and the use of masks, the CDC said Friday’s weekly report on death and illness.
It also increases the percentage of people who need to be vaccinated to get the herd’s protective immunity to control the pandemic, the CDC said.
The UK variant is currently in ten states, but has only been diagnosed in 76 of the 23 million US cases reported so far.
However, this version of the virus is likely to be more widespread in the country than currently reported, according to CDC scientists.
Former FDA chief directing vaccine capture
On Friday, separately, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden chose David Kessler, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for a lead role in the new administration’s efforts. to increase the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Biden transition team. .
The news came when Biden’s team predicted that the United States would mark some 500,000 deaths from the pandemic next month and that the president-elect had to define plans to increase vaccinations.
Kessler, a pediatrician and lawyer who led the FDA under Presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton, will be the scientific head of the administration’s COVID-19 response.
The Biden administration plans to reorganize the vaccine distribution effort that the administration of outgoing President Donald Trump called Operation Warp Speed, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Biden has described the Trump administration’s launch of vaccines as an “unfortunate failure.”
His own plan calls for Congress to spend $ 20 billion on vaccine distribution.
“We haven’t fully funded COVID’s response,” Ron Klain, Biden’s new chief of staff, said Friday.
“We will see 500,000 dead in this country next month,” Klain said.
Kessler has been co-chair of Biden’s pandemic advisory board. As head of the FDA, Kessler reduced the time required to approve drugs to treat AIDS and moved to try to regulate the tobacco industry.
His appointment comes at a critical point for the government’s effort to accelerate the development and distribution of coronavirus vaccines and treatments in a country especially affected by the virus.
Biden has promised that 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine will be injected into Americans in his first 100 days in office.
That rate is more than double the current rate, but it would still leave most of the country without the shot by the end of April.
The Trump administration aimed to administer vaccine doses to 20 million Americans by the end of 2020, but only 11.1 million shots had been administered as of Thursday, according to CDC data.
In an attempt to expand vaccination efforts, the Trump administration said Tuesday it was releasing millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine it had been holding for second shots.
The move was a departure from a previous strategy to store enough doses to ensure that the necessary doses of vaccines are available.
The Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, approved last month, require two doses.