Tag: Contagious

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C.D.C. Inner Report Calls Delta Variant as Contagious as Chickenpox

C.D.C. Internal Report Calls Delta Variant as Contagious as Chickenpox

The Delta variant is much more contagious, is more likely to breach vaccine protection, and can cause more serious illness than any other known version of the virus, according to an internal presentation spread within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, the agency’s director, admitted on Tuesday that vaccinated people with so-called breakthrough infections of the Delta variant carry just as much virus in their nose and throat as unvaccinated people and can spread it just as easily, albeit less often.

But the internal document sets out a broader and even more somber view of the variant.

The delta variant is more transmissible as the viruses that cause MERS, SARS, Ebola, the common cold, seasonal flu, and smallpox, and according to the document copied by the New York Times, it is as contagious as chickenpox.

The immediate next step for the agency is to “realize that the war has changed,” the document reads. The content was first reported by the Washington Post on Thursday evening.

The tone of the document echoes CDC scientists’ concern about the spread of Delta across the country, said a federal official who saw the research described in the document. The agency plans to publish further data on the variant on Friday.

“The CDC is very concerned about the incoming data that Delta is a very serious threat that requires action now,” the official said.

Coronavirus Pandemic and Life Expectancy in the United States

In the US, there were an average of 71,000 new cases a day as of Thursday. The new data suggests that vaccinated people spread the virus and contribute to these numbers – albeit likely to a far lesser extent than those who were not vaccinated.

Dr. Walensky has called transmission by vaccinated people a rare occurrence, but other scientists have suggested it is more common than previously thought.

The agency’s new masking guidelines for vaccinated individuals, introduced on Tuesday, were based on information contained in the document. The CDC recommended that vaccinated people wear masks indoors in public settings in communities with high virus transmission levels.

Updated

July 31, 2021 at 11:50 p.m. ET

However, the internal document indicates that even this recommendation may not go far enough. “In view of the higher transferability and current vaccination protection, universal masking is essential,” the document says.

The agency’s data suggests that people with weak immune systems should wear masks even in places with low virus transmission. This should include vaccinated Americans who are in contact with young children, older adults, or other vulnerable people.

According to the July 24 CDC quoted in the internal presentation, there are about 35,000 symptomatic infections per week among 162 million Americans vaccinated. However, the agency does not track all mild or asymptomatic infections, so the actual incidence may be higher.

Understand the state of vaccine mandates in the United States

Infection with the delta variant produces amounts of virus in the airways that are ten times higher than in people infected with the also highly contagious alpha variant, the document says.

According to a recent study, the amount of virus in a person infected with Delta is a thousand times higher than in people infected with the original version of the virus.

The CDC document draws on data from several studies, including an analysis of a recent Provincetown, Massachusetts outbreak that began in the city after the July 4th celebrations. By Thursday, that cluster had grown to 882 cases. About 74 percent had been vaccinated, said the local health authorities.

A detailed analysis of the prevalence of the cases showed that people infected with Delta carry enormous amounts of virus in their nose and throat regardless of vaccination status, according to the CDC document.

“This is one of the most impressive examples of citizen science I’ve seen,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York. “The people involved in the Provincetown outbreak meticulously created lists of their contacts and exposures.”

Infection with the Delta variant can be more likely to lead to serious illness, the document says. Studies from Canada and Scotland found that people infected with the variant were more likely to be hospitalized, while research in Singapore suggested that they were more likely to need oxygen.

Still, the CDC’s numbers show the vaccines are highly effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death in people who have been vaccinated, experts said.

“Overall, Delta is the disturbing variant that we already knew it was,” said John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. “But the sky is not falling and vaccinations are still very protective against the worst of the consequences.”

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CDC warns as contagious as chickenpox, could make individuals sicker

CDC warns as contagious as chickenpox, may make people sicker

The CDC warned House lawmakers that the delta variant sweeping across the country is as contagious as chickenpox, has a longer transmission window than the original Covid-19 strain and may make older people sicker, even if they’ve been fully vaccinated.

The warning on Thursday was made in a confidential document that was reviewed by CNBC and authenticated by the federal health agency.

Delta, now in at least 132 countries and already the dominant form of the disease in the United States, is more transmissible than the common cold, the 1918 Spanish flu, smallpox, Ebola, MERS and SARS, according to the document. Only measles appears to spread faster than the variant.

“The war has changed,” officials of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote.

Healthcare personnel work in a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) intensive care unit where they are dealing with a surge in cases of the Delta variant at Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah, U.S., in this handout photo provided July 23, 2021.

Intermountain Health | Reuters

Health officials said federal and state leaders should communicate to the public the benefits of getting vaccinated, adding the Covid vaccine shots reduce the risk of severe disease and death “10-fold or greater” and reduce the risk of infection “3-fold.”

Vaccines prevent more than 90% of severe disease, but may be less effective at preventing infection, they said, making community spread among the vaccinated more likely. The document said 35,000 symptomatic infections are occurring per week among 162 million vaccinated Americans.

Separately, the CDC has said 5,914 fully vaccinated people have been hospitalized or have died with Covid infections as of July 19, the most recent data available. Breakthrough cases, which occur in the fully vaccinated, happen more frequently in gatherings of people and in groups at risk of primary vaccine failure, according to the document.

Health officials also said federal and state leaders should consider vaccine mandates, particularly for health-care workers, universal masking and other community mitigation strategies. President Joe Biden announced on Thursday his administration would require federal workers to prove their vaccination status or submit to a series of rigorous safety protocols.

The documents presented to lawmakers came two days after the CDC reversed course on its prior guidance and recommended fully vaccinated Americans who live in areas with high Covid infection rates resume wearing face masks indoors. The guidelines cover about two-thirds of the U.S. population, according to a CNBC analysis.

“My first thoughts in reading it was that everything is a little bit worse than I thought,” said Dr. Robert Wachter, chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco, who reviewed the document.

“This document and some of the other information says you’ve got to be open to the possibility that delta is worse in a number of ways and may upend some of our prior assumptions in ways that are meaningful,” he said.

Dr. Paul Offit, who advises the FDA on Covid vaccines, said Friday it is “profoundly” upsetting that the U.S. hasn’t gotten a critical portion of the population vaccinated, adding delta has “changed the game.” About half of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

“Yesterday, you had 90,000 cases and close to 400 deaths,” Offit said. “Those are same numbers you saw last summer. I mean, last summer, you had a fully susceptible population and you had no vaccine.”

He said the CDC documents highlight just how “frustrated” federal officials are, given that there are safe and effective vaccines.

“The war isn’t against the virus anymore. It’s also at some level a war against ourselves,” he said.

People infected with the delta variant carry up to 1,000 times more virus in their nasal passages than other strains, resulting in higher transmissibility, even among the vaccinated, according to federal health officials. The CDC noted that studies in Canada, Singapore and Scotland found higher odds of hospitalization, ICU admission, oxygen needs, pneumonia or death among people infected with the delta variant.

While the variant, which surfaced in India, continues to hit unvaccinated people the hardest, some vaccinated people could be carrying higher levels of the virus than previously understood and are potentially transmitting it to others, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday. She added the variant behaves “uniquely differently from past strains of the virus.”

“This pandemic continues to pose a serious threat to the health of all Americans,” Walensky told reporters on a call.

Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., chairman of the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, said Walensky and White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci briefed the committee on the new data Thursday.

“I am deeply concerned about the rapidly increasing rates of coronavirus infections in states around the country that is being driven by the Delta variant,” Clyburn said in a statement, noting that Covid cases have increased by 145% in the last two weeks and hospitalizations and deaths are rising again, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates. “This sudden turn of events threatens to undermine the significant progress we have made this year to overcome the pandemic.”

–CNBC’s Rich Mendez, Robert Towey and Nate Rattner contributed to this report.

Download the full CDC presentation here.

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Extra younger folks hospitalized as extra contagious variants unfold

More young people hospitalized as more contagious variants spread

A paramedic takes a patient to an emergency room at Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, New Jersey on December 11, 2020.

I have Betancur | AFP | Getty Images

Dr. Paul Offit, a doctor at Philadelphia Children’s Hospital, said he is now seeing more patients with a rare inflammatory disease, a complication of Covid-19, than he has seen since the pandemic began.

In Texas, Dr. James McDeavitt, Dean of Clinical Affairs at Baylor College of Medicine, said he and his colleagues are noticing an increase in the admissions of young people with Covid-19, although he did not yet have accurate dates to support the anecdotal evidence.

Both doctors attributed the increase in hospital visits by teenagers and young adults, at least in part, to B.1.1.7, the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK, which, according to health authorities, is currently the most common variety circulating in the US The variant is highly contagious and is believed to be about 60% more transmissible than the original virus strain.

“I think they’ll get infected more often because of the virus they’ve got,” said Offit, a health expert in virology and immunology who also serves on advisory boards for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. “Because of this, I think you will see and see more diseases” in children and young adults.

CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said earlier this month that more and more younger adults are being admitted to hospitals with Covid-19 as new, more contagious variants of the virus spread faster than ever. The number of 18- to 64-year-olds who visit emergency rooms with Covid is increasing nationwide, while the number of visits to patients aged 65 and over is decreasing. This emerges from a slide that Walensky presented at a press conference last week.

“Cases and emergency rooms are on,” said Walensky. “We are seeing this increase in younger adults, most of whom have not yet been vaccinated.”

In New York City, Governor Andrew Cuomo said last week the state was seeing an increase in the rate of Covid positivity in people aged 18 to 24. In Michigan, where Covid-19 cases and hospital stays are increasing rapidly, case rates are at an all-time high for those ages 19 and younger, according to state data released April 6. Hospital admissions are increasing for all age groups, with the largest increase occurring in people between the ages of 40 and 49, according to the state.

Health experts say the problem is diverse: older teens and young adults were among the last to be preferred to the Covid-19 vaccines, and many of them haven’t got a chance yet. In addition, young adults are believed to be involved in higher-risk behaviors, such as: B. Sports in close contact, going out in bars, attending unmasked meetings or traveling.

According to health experts, these factors in connection with the highly contagious variant B.1.1.7 should lead to an increase in young people going to the hospital.

We are “seeing less disease in the elderly due to vaccination, so we will now see proportionally more disease in young adults,” said Dr. Stephen Schrantz, an infectious disease expert at UChicago Medicine, added that it is still unclear how much of the increase is due to strain B.1.1.7 alone.

Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, said there was evidence that B.1.1.7 caused more symptoms and more severe illness. He said health officials in the US and other countries where exposure is prevalent could see a shift towards unvaccinated young people ending up in hospitals or even in intensive care units.

“There are things that are not currently working in our favor, namely B.1.1.7 and other worrying variants,” he said.

Even if more young people could get sick, Schrantz of UChicago doesn’t expect many of them to get seriously ill, especially school-age children. He said young adults with comorbidities like obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes are likely to be most at risk.

“The severity of the disease depends mainly on two factors – the virus and the host,” said Schrantz.

“As the virus changes, I don’t think the mutations in the spike protein will have increased virulence in children because their bodies, and especially their immune systems, will be less responsive to the virus. In other words, I think the host is the more important variable compared to changes in the virus, “he said.

Offit said he expected the situation to improve as the US vaccinates more adults regardless of age. It also makes it more difficult for the virus to spread from one person to the next as more people have antibodies.

As of Thursday, more than 125 million Americans had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, according to the CDC. That’s roughly 37% of the total US population.

Young people “live in the herd,” Offit said. “The more the herd is vaccinated, the less the virus can spread.”

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Extra Contagious Covid Variant Is Now Dominant in U.S., C.D.C. Says

More Contagious Covid Variant Is Now Dominant in U.S., C.D.C. Says

Scientists hope the vaccination will mitigate a possible fourth surge.

On Tuesday, President Biden postponed his vaccination schedule for two weeks and urged states to question every American adult by April 19. All states have already achieved or expect to achieve this goal after he originally asked them to do so by May 1st.

The variant B.1.1.7 first arrived in the USA last year. In February, a study that analyzed half a million coronavirus tests and hundreds of genomes predicted that this variant could prevail in the country in a month. At the time, the CDC was struggling to sequence the new variants, making them difficult to track.

However, those efforts have improved significantly over the past few weeks and will continue to grow, in large part due to a $ 1.75 billion funding for genome sequencing as part of the stimulus package that Mr Biden put into the Law. In contrast, the UK, which has a more centralized health system, launched a heavily promoted sequencing program last year that allowed it to track the spread of variant B.1.1.7.

“We knew this was going to happen: this variant is much more communicable, much more contagious than the parent strain, and that obviously has an impact,” said Dr. Carlos del Rio, Professor of Medicine and Infectious Disease Expert at Emory University. The B.1.1.7 strain not only spreads more efficiently, but also appears to cause more severe disease “so you get a double blow”.

Perhaps even more worrying is the emergence of the virulent P.1 variant in North America. First identified in Brazil, it has become the dominant variant in that country, helping to bring its hospitals to the breaking point. In Canada, the P.1 variant emerged as a cluster in Ontario and then closed the Whistler ski area in British Columbia. On Wednesday, the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League said at least 21 players and four employees had been infected with the coronavirus.

“This is a vivid reminder of how quickly the virus can spread and the serious effects it can have on even healthy, young athletes,” the team’s doctor Jim Bovard said in a statement.

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New California Variant Extra Contagious, Two Research Verify

New California Variant More Contagious, Two Studies Confirm

A variant, first discovered in California in December, is more contagious than previous forms of the coronavirus. Two new studies have shown concerns that emerging mutants like these could hamper the sharp decline in cases across the state and potentially elsewhere.

In one of the new studies, researchers found that the variant had spread rapidly in a neighborhood of San Francisco in the past few months. The other report confirmed that the variant has risen sharply across the state and revealed that it produces twice as many virus particles in a person’s body as other variants. This study also suggested that the variant can bypass the immune system – and vaccines – better than others.

“I wish I had better news for you – that this variant doesn’t matter at all,” said Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist at the University of California at San Francisco. “But unfortunately we just follow science.”

None of the studies have yet been published in a scientific journal. And experts don’t know how much this variant is public health compared to others that are also spreading in California.

A variant called B.1.1.7 came to the US from the UK, where it quickly became the dominant form of the virus and overloaded hospitals there. Studies of UK medical records suggest that B.1.1.7 is not only more communicable, but also more lethal than previous variants.

Some experts said the new variant in California is of concern, but is unlikely to be as much of a burden as B.1.1.7.

“I’m becoming increasingly convinced that this one transmits more than anyone else in the field,” said William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health who was not involved in the research. “But there is no evidence that it is in the same stadium as B.1.1.7.”

Dr. Chiu accidentally stumbled upon the new variant for the first time. In December, he and other researchers in California were concerned about the discovery of B.1.1.7 in the UK. They began screening their samples from positive coronavirus tests in California and sequencing viral genomes to see if B.1.1.7 had made it to their state.

On New Year’s Eve, Dr. Chiu is shocked to find a previously unknown variant that made up a quarter of the samples he and his colleagues had collected. “I thought that was crazy,” he said.

It turned out that researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles discovered the same variant that soared to high levels in Southern California. Dr. Chiu announced his first finding and the Cedars-Sinai team went public two days later.

Since then, researchers have studied the new variant, known as B.1.427 / B.1.429, in more detail to determine its origin and track its spread. It has performed in 45 states and several other countries so far, including Australia, Denmark, Mexico, and Taiwan. But it has only launched in California so far.

It was initially unclear whether the variant was inherently more transferable than others, or whether it had risen sharply in California due to gatherings that became overarching events.

“Just by chance, poor wedding or choir practice can cause a large frequency difference,” said Joe DeRisi, co-president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, who studied the spread of the variant.

In a new study that will be posted online shortly, Dr. Chiu and his colleagues received 2,172 virus samples from across the state between September and January. In early September, the researchers found no signs of B.1.427 / B.1.429. But by the end of January it had become the predominant variant in California. Dr. Chiu and his colleagues estimate that the cases caused by the variant now double every 18 days.

Dr. Chiu and his colleagues reviewed the medical records of 308 cases of Covid-19 in San Francisco and found that a greater percentage of people had died from the new variant than others. However, this result could be a statistical coincidence: there were only 12 deaths in the group, so the difference in deaths from one subgroup to another in a larger sample may not apply.

Updated

Apr. 23, 2021, 8:18 p.m. ET

The researchers also conducted experiments in the laboratory to find evidence that the new variant had a biological benefit. In one study, they showed that it was at least 40 percent more effective than previous variants at infecting human cells. When measuring the genetic material of swabs used for coronavirus testing, the researchers found that people infected with the variant produce a viral load twice as high as other variants.

The study also found that the new variant can bypass the immune system better than other variants. Antibodies from people who had recovered from infections with other variants were less effective at blocking the new variant in the laboratory. The same was true when the researchers used blood serum from people who had been vaccinated.

Still, the effect of the variant on immunity appears to be much less than that caused by a variant from South Africa called B.1.351. Dr. Chiu said it was not clear whether the vaccines used against B.1.427 / B.1.429 will be less effective.

“If we can get enough people vaccinated, we can deal with these variants simply because we don’t have ongoing transmission,” he said.

In a separate study that has not yet been published, Dr. DeRisi and his colleagues are carefully investigating how the variant is spreading in the Mission District, a predominantly Latin American neighborhood in San Francisco.

When examining samples in late November, the researchers found that 16 percent of the coronaviruses belonged to B.1.427 / B.1.429. After sequencing 630 genomes in January, they found that they made up 53 percent.

The researchers also looked at the distribution of this and other variants in 326 households. They found that people had a 35 percent chance of getting infected if someone had B.1.427 / B.1.429 in their home. If the person was infected with another variant, the rate was only 26 percent.

“What we see is a modest but significant difference,” said Dr. DeRisi.

Dr. Chiu said the San Francisco study provided a microcosm of how the variant has spread across the state. “The data they have from the mission district really supports our data and vice versa,” he said.

Dr. However, Harvard-based Hanage is not convinced that the variant poses a major threat. Every time B.1.1.7 appeared in a new country, it quickly exploded. In contrast, the variant discovered in California seems to have slowly gained dominance.

Dr. Chiu and his colleagues were able to estimate when B.1.427 / B.1.429 arose by comparing the mutations that have occurred in the viruses since they separated from their common ancestor. This analysis pointed to late spring. If that’s correct, it means the variant may have lurked at extremely low levels in California for four months or more.

“It’s not as big a deal as the others,” said Dr. Hanage. He speculates that if scientists sequence more coronavirus genomes elsewhere, they will find more of these moderately fast-spreading mutants. “Maybe there are variants everywhere, and we only see them where sequencing happens,” he said.

We may soon have new insights into how seriously these new variants should be taken. B.1.1.7 didn’t arrive in California until early December, and although it has doubled about every 12 days, it’s still about 2 percent of the coronaviruses in the state.

Now California is becoming a kind of virus cage match between the two variants. “My suspicion is that the B.1.1.7 will win,” said Dr. Hanage.

Dr. However, Chiu thinks it is possible that B.1.427 / B.1.429 will suppress the newcomer and continue to dominate the state.

“We’ll find out in the next few weeks,” he said.

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Minnesota confirms first identified U.S. case of extra contagious Covid variant initially present in Brazil

Minnesota confirms first known U.S. case of more contagious Covid variant originally found in Brazil

The Minnesota Department of Health announced Monday that it had confirmed the first known U.S. case of a contagious variant of coronavirus originally found in Brazil.

The Brazilian strain was found by the Ministry of Health’s variant monitoring program, according to a press release. The department collects 50 random samples each week for genome sequencing.

The patient with the Brazil variant is a resident of the Twin Cities metropolitan area who recently traveled to Brazil, according to state health officials. The person fell ill the first week of January and the sample was collected on January 9, the state said.

“We are grateful that our testing program helped us find this case, and we thank all Minnesotans who seek tests when they feel sick or otherwise have reason to have a test,” said Jan Malcolm, Minnesota health commissioner , in a statement. “We know that like all viruses, the virus will continue to evolve even as we work hard to defeat COVID-19.”

Previously, President Joe Biden had expanded travel restrictions to Europe, the UK and Brazil to curb the spread of Covid-19, especially as new strains of the coronavirus are identified.

Health officials are concerned that the Covid-19 vaccines currently on the market may not be as effective against new, more contagious strains of the coronavirus. Moderna said Monday it was working on a booster shot to protect against another strain found in South Africa.

The Brazilian strain, designated P.1, was first identified in four travelers from Brazil who were tested during a routine screening in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It contains a number of additional mutations that the CDC says can affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies.

State health officials also said Monday they had found two more cases of the B.1.1.7 virus, commonly known as the British variant, through last week’s variant surveillance tests. Of the two new cases of the British variant discovered by the health department, both are residents of the Twin Cities metropolitan area and both reported recent trips to California.

“These cases illustrate why it is so important to limit travel as much as possible during a pandemic,” said epidemiologist Dr. Ruth Lynfield in a statement. “If you must travel, it is important to be on the lookout for symptoms of COVID-19, follow public health instructions to get tested before you travel, take careful protective measures and quarantine while you are traveling, and after Test trip. “

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What Does a Extra Contagious Virus Imply for Faculties?

What Does a More Contagious Virus Mean for Schools?

“When we look at what has happened in the UK and think about this new variant and see that all the numbers are rising, we have to remember that schools are open with virtually no changes,” said Dr Jenkins said. “I would like to see a real example of a country, state, or place like this that has managed to control things in schools.”

There are a few examples in the United States.

Erin Bromage, an immunologist at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, advised the Governor of Rhode Island and schools in southern Massachusetts on preventive measures to fight the coronavirus. The schools, which followed closely the guidelines, didn’t see many infections, even with the virus circulating at high levels in the community, said Dr. Bromage.

“When the system is properly designed and we take kids to school, they’ll be just as safe, if not more secure, than in a hybrid or remote system,” he said.

The children of the school that Dr. Visited Bromage, took extra precautions. For example, the administrators closed the school a few days before Thanksgiving to reduce the risk of family reunions, and worked remotely for the week after the vacation.

Officials tested the nearly 300 students and staff at the end of that week, found only two cases, and decided to reopen.

“That gave us confidence that our population was not representative of what we saw in the wider community,” he said. “We used data to see if we could get back together.”

The tests are costing $ 61 per child, but schools that can’t afford it might consider testing teachers only, he added, as the data suggests that the virus “is more likely to be from teacher to teacher than student wanders to teacher ”.

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Pfizer Says Its Vaccine Works In opposition to Key Mutation in Contagious Variants

Pfizer Says Its Vaccine Works Against Key Mutation in Contagious Variants

Pfizer and BioNTech announced on Friday that their Covid vaccine is effective against one of the mutations in the new contagious variants in the UK and South Africa.

Independent experts said the results were good news, but warned that each of these coronavirus variants have several different potentially dangerous mutations that have not yet been studied. So it’s possible that one of these mutations could affect the effectiveness of the vaccine.

“It’s the first step in the right direction,” said Dr. John Brooks, the chief medical officer of the Covid-19 emergency department at the Centers for Disease Control. “I hope the additional work that comes out in the future matches this insight.”

The new variant, known as B.1.1.7, first gave cause for concern in December when British researchers found it was rapidly becoming more common in people with Covid-19. Since then, it has appeared in 45 countries.

Subsequent research has confirmed that it has the ability to spread more easily from person to person. On Friday, Public Health England published a new study on B.1.1.7 in which researchers estimated that the variant is 30 to 50 percent more transmissible than other forms of the virus.

The viral line that leads to B.1.1.7 has accumulated 23 mutations. Of particular concern to scientists are eight mutations that affect the gene for a protein called spike on the surface of coronaviruses. That’s because the viruses use the spike protein to capture human cells. It is possible that one or more of them will help B.1.1.7 enter cells more successfully.

One of these mutations, known as N501Y, is of particular concern. Experiments have shown that it allows the virus to bind more tightly to cells. And it has appeared in other lines of the coronavirus as well, including a variant identified in South Africa in December. This variant, named B.1.351, quickly spread across the country and has so far expanded to a dozen other countries.

In the new study, which went online Thursday and has not yet undergone a formal scientific review, researchers from the University of Texas Medical Department conducted an experiment to see if the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine was against viruses with the N501Y mutation works. They found that in cells in the laboratory, the mutated virus could not infect human cells mixed with antibodies from vaccinated people. The antibodies clung to the coronaviruses, preventing them from entering cells. Despite the N501Y mutation, the experiment showed that the antibodies produced by the vaccine were still able to bind to the viruses.

“This indicates that the key N501Y mutation found in the emerging variants in the UK and South Africa does not create resistance to the immune responses induced by the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine,” the companies said in a press release .

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U.S. Is Blind to Contagious New Virus Variant, Scientists Warn

U.S. Is Blind to Contagious New Virus Variant, Scientists Warn

Experten warnen davor, dass die Vereinigten Staaten ohne ein robustes System zur Identifizierung genetischer Variationen des Coronavirus schlecht gerüstet sind, um eine gefährliche neue Mutante aufzuspüren, und lassen die Gesundheitsbeamten blind, wenn sie versuchen, die schwerwiegende Bedrohung zu bekämpfen.

Die Variante, die jetzt in Großbritannien auf dem Vormarsch ist und die Krankenhäuser mit neuen Fällen belastet, ist in den USA derzeit selten. Aber es könnte in den nächsten Wochen explodieren und neuen Druck auf amerikanische Krankenhäuser ausüben, von denen einige bereits kurz vor dem Bruch stehen.

In den Vereinigten Staaten gibt es kein landesweites System zur Überprüfung des Coronavirus-Genoms auf neue Mutationen, einschließlich derjenigen, die von der neuen Variante getragen werden. Ungefähr 1,4 Millionen Menschen testen jede Woche positiv auf das Virus, aber Forscher führen nur eine Genomsequenzierung durch – eine Methode, mit der die neue Variante definitiv erkannt werden kann – an weniger als 3.000 dieser wöchentlichen Proben. Und diese Arbeit wird von einem Flickenteppich aus akademischen, staatlichen und kommerziellen Labors geleistet.

Wissenschaftler sagen, dass ein nationales Überwachungsprogramm in der Lage sein würde, festzustellen, wie weit verbreitet die neue Variante ist, und dabei zu helfen, aufkommende Krisenherde einzudämmen, was das entscheidende Zeitfenster verlängert, in dem schutzbedürftige Menschen im ganzen Land geimpft werden könnten. Das würde mehrere hundert Millionen Dollar oder mehr kosten. Während dies wie ein steiler Preis erscheinen mag, ist es ein winziger Bruchteil der 16 Billionen US-Dollar an wirtschaftlichen Verlusten, die die Vereinigten Staaten aufgrund von Covid-19 schätzungsweise erlitten haben.

“Wir brauchen eine Art Führung”, sagte Dr. Charles Chiu, ein Forscher an der University of California in San Francisco, dessen Team einige der ersten Fälle der neuen Variante in Kalifornien entdeckte. „Dies muss ein System sein, das auf nationaler Ebene implementiert wird. Ohne diese engagierte Unterstützung geht es einfach nicht. “

Mit einem solchen System könnten Gesundheitsbeamte die Öffentlichkeit in den betroffenen Gebieten warnen und neue Maßnahmen einleiten, um mit der Variante fertig zu werden – beispielsweise die Verwendung besserer Masken, Kontaktverfolgung, Schließung von Schulen oder vorübergehende Sperrungen – und dies frühzeitig tun, anstatt zu warten Eine neue Welle überflutete Krankenhäuser mit Kranken.

Die eingehende Biden-Administration ist möglicherweise offen für die Idee. “Der gewählte Präsident unterstützt ein nationales Testprogramm, das dazu beitragen kann, die Verbreitung von COVID-19 zu stoppen und Varianten zu finden”, sagte TJ Ducklo, ein Sprecher des Übergangs. „Das bedeutet mehr Tests, mehr Laborkapazität und Genomsequenzierung. Dies ist wichtig, um COVID-19 zu kontrollieren und die USA darauf vorzubereiten, zukünftige Krankheitsbedrohungen zu erkennen und zu stoppen. “

Experten verweisen auf Großbritannien als Vorbild dafür, was die USA tun könnten. Britische Forscher sequenzieren das Genom – das heißt das gesamte genetische Material in einem Coronavirus – aus bis zu 10 Prozent der neuen positiven Proben. Selbst wenn die USA nur ein Prozent der Genome aus dem ganzen Land oder etwa 2.000 neue Proben pro Tag sequenzieren würden, würde dies ein helles Licht auf die neue Variante sowie andere möglicherweise auftretende Varianten werfen.

Aber die USA verfehlen dieses Ziel jetzt weit. Im vergangenen Monat haben amerikanische Forscher laut GISAID, einer internationalen Datenbank, in der Forscher neue Genome von Coronaviren teilen, nur einige hundert Genome pro Tag sequenziert. Und nur wenige Staaten waren für den größten Teil der Bemühungen verantwortlich. Kalifornien liegt mit 8.896 Genomen an der Spitze. In North Dakota, wo bisher mehr als 93.500 Fälle aufgetreten sind, haben Forscher kein einziges Genom sequenziert.

Im März startete Großbritannien das, wonach sich viele amerikanische Experten sehnen: ein gut geführtes nationales Programm zur Verfolgung von Mutationen des neuen Coronavirus. Das Land investierte 20 Millionen Pfund – ungefähr 27 Millionen US-Dollar – in die Schaffung eines wissenschaftlichen Konsortiums, das Krankenhäuser im ganzen Land einbezog und ihnen Standardverfahren für den Versand von Proben an spezielle Labors gab, in denen ihre Viren sequenziert wurden. Mithilfe von Cloud Computing analysierten Experten die Mutationen und fanden heraus, wo jede Linie des Virus auf einen Evolutionsbaum passt.

“Was Großbritannien mit der Sequenzierung getan hat, ist für mich der Mondschuss der Pandemie”, sagte Emma Hodcroft, eine molekulare Epidemiologin an der Universität Bern in der Schweiz, die Nextstrain, ein in Seattle ansässiges Projekt zur Verfolgung von Krankheitserregern, mitgestaltet hat. “Sie haben beschlossen, Sequenzierung zu machen, und sie haben einfach ein absolut unglaubliches Programm von Grund auf neu erstellt.”

Das intensive Programm Großbritanniens zur Verfolgung der genetischen Entwicklung des Coronavirus ist wahrscheinlich der Grund, warum es im vergangenen Monat als erstes Land die neue Variante namens B.1.1.7 identifiziert hat. Großbritannien hat bisher 209.038 Coronavirus-Genome sequenziert – fast zwei Drittel aller weltweit sequenzierten. Die USA, ein fünfmal größeres Land, haben nur 58.560 Genome sequenziert.

In den USA hat eine Konstellation von Labors, hauptsächlich an Universitäten, seit dem Frühjahr Coronavirus-Genome analysiert. Viele von ihnen geben ihre eigenen bescheidenen Mittel aus, um die Arbeit zu erledigen. “Es kommt alles auf diese Basisbewegungen an, um es in Gang zu bringen”, sagte Kristian Andersen, Virologe am Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, dessen Labor an der Spitze dieser Bemühungen steht.

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6. Januar 2021, 19:09 Uhr ET

Dr. Andersen und andere Wissenschaftler beleuchteten den Weg des Coronavirus, der sich über den Globus und die Vereinigten Staaten ausbreitete. Einige der frühen Fälle in den Vereinigten Staaten stammten aus China, dem Geburtsort des neuartigen Coronavirus, aber es waren Reisende aus Europa, die die meisten Fälle in viele amerikanische Städte brachten.

Nach diesen ersten Erfolgen wurde das Screening jedoch nur in geringem Umfang fortgesetzt. “Es hat sicherlich nicht zu einer Revolution in der genomischen Überwachung geführt”, sagte Dr. Andersen.

Im Mai haben die Zentren für die Kontrolle und Prävention von Krankheiten Dutzende von Labors in den USA in einem Konsortium zusammengeführt. Es ist bekannt als SARS-CoV-2-Sequenzierung für das Notfallkonsortium für öffentliche Gesundheit, Epidemiologie und Überwachung oder SPHÄREN.

Wissenschaftler, die an SPHERES teilnehmen, sagen, dass dies ein guter Anfang war. “Es ist ein wirklich nützliches Netzwerk für Wissenschaftler, Akademiker und Forscher, um sich in den USA gegenseitig zu helfen”, sagte Dr. Hodcroft. Labore, die sich an der Sequenzierung von Coronavirus-Genomen beteiligen wollten, konnten sich von anderen Labors beraten lassen, anstatt das wissenschaftliche Rad neu zu erfinden.

Es handelt sich jedoch nicht um ein nationales Programm mit einem klaren Mandat und Ressourcen, um sicherzustellen, dass Mutationen in den USA sorgfältig überwacht werden. “Als Land brauchen wir eine genomische Überwachung”, sagte Dr. Andersen. “Es braucht ein Bundesmandat.”

Die CDC lehnte es ab, die Wissenschaftler, die SPHERES betreiben, für ein Interview zur Verfügung zu stellen. “CDC arbeitet mit staatlichen Laboratorien für öffentliche Gesundheit, Wissenschaft und Handel zusammen, um die Kapazität zur Überwachung häuslicher Stämme zu erhöhen und wöchentlich Tausende von Proben zu sequenzieren”, schrieb Brian Katzowitz, ein Sprecher der Agentur, in einer Erklärung.

Der Coronavirus-Ausbruch >

Wissenswertes zum Testen

Verwirrt von den Bedingungen zum Testen von Coronaviren? Lasst uns helfen:

    • Antikörper: Ein vom Immunsystem produziertes Protein, das bestimmte Arten von Viren, Bakterien oder anderen Eindringlingen erkennen und genau daran binden kann.
    • Antikörpertest / Serologietest: Ein Test, der für das Coronavirus spezifische Antikörper nachweist. Ungefähr eine Woche, nachdem das Coronavirus den Körper infiziert hat, beginnen Antikörper im Blut zu erscheinen. Da die Entwicklung von Antikörpern so lange dauert, kann ein Antikörpertest eine laufende Infektion nicht zuverlässig diagnostizieren. Es kann jedoch Personen identifizieren, die in der Vergangenheit dem Coronavirus ausgesetzt waren.
    • Antigen-Test: Dieser Test erkennt Teile von Coronavirus-Proteinen, die als Antigene bezeichnet werden. Antigen-Tests sind schnell und dauern nur fünf Minuten. Sie sind jedoch weniger genau als Tests, bei denen genetisches Material aus dem Virus nachgewiesen wird.
    • Coronavirus: Jedes Virus, das zur Familie der Orthocoronavirinae-Viren gehört. Das Coronavirus, das Covid-19 verursacht, ist als SARS-CoV-2 bekannt.
    • Covid19: Die durch das neue Coronavirus verursachte Krankheit. Der Name steht für Coronavirus Disease 2019.
    • Isolierung und Quarantäne: Isolation ist die Trennung von Menschen, die wissen, dass sie an einer ansteckenden Krankheit leiden, von denen, die nicht krank sind. Quarantäne bezieht sich auf die Einschränkung der Bewegung von Personen, die einem Virus ausgesetzt waren.
    • Nasopharyngealabstrich: Ein langer, flexibler Stab mit einem weichen Tupfer, der tief in die Nase eingeführt wird, um Proben aus dem Raum zu entnehmen, in dem die Nasenhöhle auf den Hals trifft. Proben für Coronavirus-Tests können auch mit Tupfern entnommen werden, die nicht so tief in die Nase reichen – manchmal auch als Nasentupfer bezeichnet – oder mit Mund- oder Rachenabstrichen.
    • Polymerasekettenreaktion (PCR): Wissenschaftler verwenden PCR, um Millionen Kopien von genetischem Material in einer Probe zu erstellen. Mithilfe von PCR-Tests können Forscher das Coronavirus auch dann nachweisen, wenn es knapp ist.
    • Viruslast: Die Menge an Viren im Körper einer Person. Bei Menschen, die mit dem Coronavirus infiziert sind, kann die Viruslast ihren Höhepunkt erreichen, bevor sie Symptome zeigen, wenn überhaupt Symptome auftreten.

Am Mittwoch kündigten die Gensequenzierungsunternehmen Helix und Illumina eine Zusammenarbeit an, um die Entstehung von B.1.1.7 mit Unterstützung der CDC zu verfolgen. Die Unternehmen sequenzieren bis zu 1.000 Genome pro Woche. Karen Birmingham, eine Sprecherin von Illumina, wies jedoch schnell darauf hin, dass das Pilotprogramm weit entfernt von einer nationalen Anstrengung sei. “Wir begrüßen die genomische Überwachung in den USA viel umfassender und koordinierter”, sagte sie.

Dank des robusten britischen Systems zur genetischen Überwachung konnten Wissenschaftler besser verstehen, wie gefährlich die neue Variante ist. Eine ernüchternde Studie, die am Montag von Forschern des britischen Sequenzierungskonsortiums veröffentlicht wurde, ergab, dass die Sperrung des Landes im November die Übertragung gewöhnlicher Varianten des Coronavirus gut beschleunigte, die Verbreitung von B.1.1.7 jedoch nicht aufhielt.

Epidemiologen messen die Ausbreitungsrate eines Virus mit der sogenannten Reproduktionszahl. Wenn die Fortpflanzungszahl 1 ist, bedeutet dies, dass jede infizierte Person sie im Durchschnitt an eine andere Person weitergibt. Eine wachsende Epidemie hat eine Fortpflanzungszahl von mehr als 1, während eine schwindende Zahl weniger als 1 beträgt. Die britischen Forscher schätzten, dass andere Coronaviren als B.1.1.7 während der Sperrung eine Fortpflanzungszahl von 0,95 hatten, während B.1.1.7 dies getan hatte eine Reproduktionszahl von 1,45.

Die Geschwindigkeit, mit der B.1.1.7 häufiger geworden ist, deutet darauf hin, dass es einige biologische Merkmale aufweist, die eine bessere Ausbreitung von einem Wirt zum anderen ermöglichen. Laborexperimente haben gezeigt, dass einige seiner Mutationen es dem Virus ermöglichen können, sich erfolgreicher an Zellen in den Atemwegen zu binden.

Am Montag gab die britische Regierung bekannt, dass das Land in eine noch strengere nationale Sperrung geraten werde als im November. “Sie dürfen nicht gehen oder außerhalb Ihres Hauses sein, außer wenn dies erforderlich ist”, sagte die Regierung in einem Gutachten.

Es ist noch zu früh, um zu wissen, wie sich B.1.1.7 auf die amerikanische Pandemie auswirken wird – und vor allem, ob es die US-Krankenhäuser wie die in Großbritannien überwältigen wird. Die meisten Menschen, die sich infizieren, geben das Virus nicht an andere weiter. Ein kleiner Teil der Menschen ist für einen Großteil seiner Übertragung in sogenannten Super-Spreading-Ereignissen verantwortlich. Sie landen zur richtigen Zeit am richtigen Ort, um viele Menschen gleichzeitig zu infizieren.

Wenn die neue Variante jedoch dieselbe Flugbahn wie in Großbritannien einschlägt, wird sie in den kommenden Wochen die gängigeren, weniger ansteckenden Varianten übertreffen. “Es könnte in den nächsten Monaten das dominierende Virus werden”, sagte Nathan Grubaugh, Virologe an der Yale University.

Eines ist jedoch sicher. Mitarbeiter des öffentlichen Gesundheitswesens können die Variante nur stoppen, wenn sie sie sehen können. Dr. Grubaugh und andere Wissenschaftler erstellen benutzerdefinierte Tests für B.1.1.7. die PCR verwenden, eine schnelle und kostengünstige Technologie, mit der auf jede Variante des Coronavirus getestet werden kann.

Dr. Grubaugh sagte jedoch, dass es weitaus besser wäre, wenn die Forscher nicht lange nach der Ankunft einer gefährlichen neuen Variante in den USA um diese Tests kämpfen müssten. “Es ist insgesamt nur ein Pflaster für unseren Mangel an genomischer Überwachung”, sagte er.

Ein landesweites Überwachungsprogramm Die Entwicklung des Coronavirus zu verfolgen, würde es Forschern nicht nur ermöglichen, die Ausbreitung von B.1.1.7. zu beobachten, sondern auch andere, möglicherweise noch gefährlichere neue Mutationen, die in seiner Linie auftreten. Neue Varianten könnten menschliche Zellen noch effizienter infizieren oder, schlimmer noch, Impfstoffen oder antiviralen Medikamenten ausweichen.

“Nur weil wir es nicht eingerichtet haben, heißt das nicht, dass wir es nicht tun können”, sagte Dr. Hodcroft. “Wir müssen nur wirklich entscheiden, dass dies etwas ist, was wir wollen.”

Sie betonte, dass der einzige Weg, diese gefährlichen neuen Fehler zu finden, darin bestehe, ständig nach ihnen zu suchen. “Sie tauchen nicht am ersten Tag auf und stellen sich vor und sagen: ‘Hey, schau mir zu!'”, Sagte sie. „Wir brauchen eine Weile, um das herauszufinden. Und wir brauchen länger, wenn wir nicht suchen. “

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Extra Contagious Coronavirus Variant Present in Colorado

More Contagious Coronavirus Variant Found in Colorado

A case of the contagious variant of coronavirus, first discovered in the UK, was found in Colorado on Tuesday, Governor Jared Polis said. It is the first confirmed case of the variant in the United States.

The variant was discovered in a man in his twenties with no travel history, Mr Polis said. The man was isolated in Elbert County, southeast of Denver, he said.

“We don’t know much about this new variant of Covid-19, but scientists in the UK are warning the world that it is far more contagious,” Polis said in a statement. “The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority and we will monitor this case as well as any Covid-19 indicators very closely.”

Scientists are concerned about these variants, but not surprised by them. It is normal for viruses to mutate, and most of the mutations in the coronavirus have been shown to be minor.

“This shouldn’t be a cause for panic,” said William Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard University. “But it is an occasion to redouble our efforts to prevent the virus from getting a chance to spread.”

Earlier this month, British researchers observed that the variant was becoming more common in parts of the UK. Your subsequent research suggests that the variant known as B.1.1.7 spreads more easily than others in circulation.

It is not yet clear why B.1.1.7 transmits more easily. The line has accumulated 23 mutations since splitting off from other coronaviruses. The researchers are studying some of the mutations to see if the viruses can enter cells more easily or make more copies of themselves.

There is no evidence that an infection with B.1.1.7 is more likely to lead to a severe case of Covid-19 or increase the risk of death. However, the speed at which the variant appears to be spreading could lead to more infections – and therefore more hospitalizations.

The UK government reacted to the emergence of B.1.1.7 by restricting the movement of people and the size of the gatherings. In a preliminary study, UK researchers found that schools may need to be closed and vaccination programs aggressively accelerated to prevent a huge surge in cases.

Countries around the world have introduced stricter protocols for travelers entering from the UK. A new rule in the United States requiring incoming travelers from the UK – including American citizens – to provide proof of a negative coronavirus test upon entry went into effect on Monday.

It is not clear where B.1.1.7 originated. The UK has the largest system for sequencing the coronavirus genomes, which is why the variant may have been found there first. Cases of the variant have also been identified in France, Spain and other European countries, as well as Lebanon and Singapore. Health officials in Ontario, Canada, said Saturday that they had identified two cases of the variant in a couple with no known travel history or exposure.

With the United States sequencing far fewer genomes than the UK, American scientists suspected that the variant may already have been undetected in the country. It seems they were right.

The fact that the Colorado man identified on Tuesday had no travel history raises the worrying possibility that B.1.1.7 is already well established in his community – and perhaps elsewhere as well. “It didn’t teleport across the Atlantic,” said Dr. Hanage.