Tag: Variant

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Health

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine prone to be efficient in opposition to UK variant

Pfizer to temporarily reduce Covid vaccine deliveries to Europe

A picture taken on January 15, 2021 shows a pharmacist holding a vial of undiluted Pfizer BioNTech vaccine for Covid-19 with gloved hands, which is stored at -70 ° in a super freezer at Le Mans hospital in northwestern France became country runs a vaccination campaign to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Jean-Francois Monier | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – The coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech is likely just as effective against a highly transmissible mutant strain of the virus, first discovered in the UK, according to a study by the two companies.

It was estimated that those listed as B.1.1.7. Well-known variant first appeared in the UK in September 2020. It has an unusually high number of mutations and is associated with more efficient and faster transmission.

The characteristics of the variant had raised concerns about the effectiveness of Covid vaccines against them.

However, studies published on the preprint server bioRxiv showed “no biologically significant difference in the neutralization activity” between the laboratory tests on B.1.1.7 and the original strain of the coronavirus.

The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, found that all of the mutations associated with the newly discovered variant were neutralized by antibodies in the blood of 16 participants who had previously been given the vaccine.

Half of the participants were between 18 and 55 years old and the other half between 56 and 85 years old.

The study’s authors warned of the rapid spread of Covid variants around the world, which required “continuous monitoring of the importance of changes in maintaining protection from currently approved vaccines.”

It is the first of its kind to be completed by a major Covid vaccine manufacturer as other pharmaceutical companies scramble to test the effectiveness of their respective vaccines.

Moderna and AstraZeneca, who worked with Oxford University to develop a Covid vaccine, both previously announced that their vaccines will be effective against B.1.1.7.

Virus spread

Earlier this month, Dr. Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNTech, told CNBC that the German pharmaceutical company is confident that its vaccine will develop an immune response against B.1.1.7.

Sahin said he believes the vaccine should also prove effective against a variant discovered in South Africa – another highly transmissible variant that has caused concern among public health experts.

His comments came shortly after initial tests showed that Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine appeared to be effective against a key mutation in the more infectious variants of the virus discovered in the UK and South Africa. Now, scientists from both companies have published research indicating that the vaccine is likely to be effective against all mutations associated with B.1.1.7.

In recent weeks, optimism about the global roll out of Covid vaccines has been tempered by the resurgent rate of spread of the virus.

To date, more than 96.2 million people have contracted the coronavirus, according to Johns Hopkins University, with 2.05 million people dying.

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Health

What You Can Do to Keep away from the New Coronavirus Variant Proper Now

What You Can Do to Avoid the New Coronavirus Variant Right Now

The vaccine is the ultimate way to reduce the risk. But until then, take a look at your activities and try to reduce the time and number of exposures to other people.

For example, if you go to the store two or three times a week now, reduce the number to once a week. When you’ve spent 30 to 45 minutes at the grocery store, cut your time down to 15 or 20 minutes. If the shop is crowded, come back later. When standing in line, make sure you are at least three feet away from the people in front and behind you. Try roadside delivery or pickup if that’s an option for you.

If you’ve spent time indoors with someone outside your household, these events should be skipped until you and your friends are vaccinated. If you need to spend time with others, wear your best mask, make sure the room is well ventilated (windows and doors open), and keep the visit as short as possible. It’s still safest to put your social plans outdoors. And if you are thinking about air travel, given the high number of cases across the country and the emergence of the contagious variant, making a new appointment is a good idea.

“The new variations make me think twice about my plan to teach in person what would have happened with masks and good ventilation anyway,” said Dr. Marr. “You make me think twice about getting on a plane.”

Experts are cautiously optimistic that the current generation of vaccines will mainly be effective against the emerging coronavirus variants. Earlier this month Pfizer and BioNTech announced that their Covid vaccine was effective against one of the key mutations that are present in some variants. This is good news, but the variants have other potentially risky mutations that have not yet been studied.

Some data also suggest that variants with certain mutations may be more resistant to the vaccines. Far more studies are needed, however, and these variants have not yet been demonstrated in the United States. While the data is concerned, experts say the current vaccines produce extremely high levels of antibodies and are likely to at least prevent serious illness in people who are immunized and infected.

“The reason I’m cautiously optimistic is that, from what we know about how vaccines work, it’s not just one antibody that provides all of the protection,” said Dr. Adam Lauring, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan. “When you get vaccinated, you make antibodies all over the spike protein. This makes it less likely that a mutation here or there will leave you completely unprotected. That gives me reason to be optimistic that this will be okay with the vaccine, but there is still a lot to be done. “

Categories
Health

What You Can Do to Keep away from the New Coronavirus Variant Proper Now

What You Can Do to Avoid the New Coronavirus Variant Right Now

The vaccine is the ultimate way to reduce the risk. But until then, take a look at your activities and try to reduce the time and number of exposures to other people.

For example, if you go to the store two or three times a week now, reduce the number to once a week. When you’ve spent 30 to 45 minutes at the grocery store, cut your time down to 15 or 20 minutes. If the shop is crowded, come back later. When standing in line, make sure you are at least three feet away from the people in front and behind you. Try roadside delivery or pickup if that’s an option for you.

If you’ve spent time indoors with someone outside your household, these events should be skipped until you and your friends are vaccinated. If you need to spend time with others, wear your best mask, make sure the room is well ventilated (windows and doors open), and keep the visit as short as possible. It’s still safest to put your social plans outdoors. And if you are thinking about air travel, given the high number of cases across the country and the emergence of the contagious variant, making a new appointment is a good idea.

“The new variations make me think twice about my plan to teach in person what would have happened with masks and good ventilation anyway,” said Dr. Marr. “You make me think twice about getting on a plane.”

Experts are cautiously optimistic that the current generation of vaccines will mainly be effective against the emerging coronavirus variants. Earlier this month Pfizer and BioNTech announced that their Covid vaccine was effective against one of the key mutations that are present in some variants. This is good news, but the variants have other potentially risky mutations that have not yet been studied.

Some data also suggest that variants with certain mutations may be more resistant to the vaccines. Far more studies are needed, however, and these variants have not yet been demonstrated in the United States. While the data is concerned, experts say the current vaccines produce extremely high levels of antibodies and are likely to at least prevent serious illness in people who are immunized and infected.

“The reason I’m cautiously optimistic is that, from what we know about how vaccines work, it’s not just one antibody that provides all of the protection,” said Dr. Adam Lauring, Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Michigan. “When you get vaccinated, you make antibodies all over the spike protein. This makes it less likely that a mutation here or there will leave you completely unprotected. That gives me reason to be optimistic that this will be okay with the vaccine, but there is still a lot to be done. “

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Business

Germany discovers Covid variant in Bavaria

Germany discovers Covid variant in Bavaria

There is snow in front of the entrance to the Garmisch-Partenkirchen hospital. A possibly new variant of the corona virus was discovered in the Garmisch-Partenkirchen hospital. Samples are currently being examined in the Charité hospital in Berlin, the hospital announced on Monday.

Image Alliance | Image Alliance | Getty Images

Germany is the youngest country to have discovered a new mutation in the coronavirus. A new variant was identified in a group of hospital patients in Bavaria.

Local news agencies reported for the first time on Monday that an unknown variant of the corona virus had been discovered in 35 patients in a hospital in the Bavarian ski town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in southeast Germany.

The modified virus was found in 35 of 73 newly infected people in the hospital, the Bavarian news agency BR24 reported on Monday. According to reports, samples are currently being examined at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. CNBC reached out to the German Ministry of Health to confirm the reports.

Officials said the variant was different from recently discovered variants in the UK and South Africa.

The hospital’s deputy medical director, Clemens Stockklausner, told a press conference on Monday that there was still no understanding of whether the mutation had made the virus more transmissible (as in the variants discovered in the UK and South Africa) or more deadly.

“At the moment we have discovered a small point mutation … and it is absolutely not clear whether it will be of clinical relevance,” said Stockklausner. “We have to wait for the sequencing to be complete.”

Neither the British nor the South African variants cause more deaths, although due to their ability to spread more easily, they have caused more infections, hospitalizations and, unfortunately, more deaths. In the UK and Ireland in particular, the mutated virus has spread rapidly, causing a surge in infections and causing some hospitals to face an influx of patients.

Information about the new variant found in Germany was published on the same day that the country’s health minister, Jens Spahn, said that the current state of coronavirus sequencing in the country was insufficient and that the laboratories would be obliged (and compensated) Coronavirus samples used to monitor the virus to sequence mutations.

A handful of other countries that have detected coronavirus mutations, including the UK and South Africa, are known for their large-scale surveillance and genome sequencing of coronavirus samples.

Last week, Dr. Janosch Dahmen, doctor and German MP for the Greens, told CNBC: “We need a more precise crisis mode here in Germany to fight the pandemic, and I am very concerned that the number (of infections) will go far higher than we do can see in the UK and Ireland right now. “

Infections persist

The 16 German Prime Ministers will meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday to discuss whether the lockdown restrictions across the country, which are due to end soon, should be tightened or extended on Jan. 31.

The German infection rate is still an important problem. Another 11,369 cases per day were reported Tuesday by the health department, the Robert Koch Institute. This brings the total number of cases to just over 2 million. The death toll stands at 47,622.

Germany, like other European countries, endeavored to avoid the spread of the more infectious virus strains in Great Britain and South Africa.

Merkel reportedly told her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) lawmakers last week: “If we fail to stop this British virus, we will have ten times as many cases by Easter … W.e still need eight to ten weeks of tough measures, “reported the German daily Bild.

On Monday, Spahn insisted that the coronavirus mutation discovered in Great Britain should not be called an “English variant”.

“Just as we didn’t talk about the ‘Chinese virus’ last year, we shouldn’t talk about the ‘English version’ now,” said Spahn, reported Reuters.

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World News

That is how U.Okay. scientists discovered the variant.

This is how U.K. scientists found the variant.

Suddenly the coronavirus seemed to be changing.

For months, Dr. Steven Kemp, an infectious disease expert, a global library of coronavirus genomes. He was studying how the virus mutated in the lungs of a patient struggling to shake a raging infection in a nearby Cambridge hospital and wanted to know if those changes would occur in other people.

At the end of November, Dr. Kemp then came up with a surprising match: some of the same mutations seen in the patient, as well as other changes, kept coming back in newly infected people, mostly in the UK.

Worse still, the changes focused on the spike protein that is used by the virus to attach to human cells, suggesting that a virus that is already wreaking havoc around the world has evolved in ways that could make it even more contagious .

“There are a lot of mutations that go along with the same frequency,” he wrote to Dr. Ravindra Gupta, a Cambridge virologist. He listed the most disturbing changes and added, “ALL of these sequences have the following spike mutants.”

The two researchers didn’t know yet, but they had found a new, highly contagious variant of the coronavirus that has since spread across the UK, shaking scientists’ understanding of the virus and threatening to prevent global recovery from the pandemic.

A consortium of British disease researchers, long-time torchbearers in genomics who had helped track the Ebola and Zika epidemics, became known. They gathered on Slack and video calls, comparing notes as they searched for clues, including a tip from scientists in South Africa about another new variation there. Others have since appeared in Brazil.

For almost a year, scientists had only observed incremental changes in the coronavirus and expected more of them. The new variants forced them to change their thinking, suggesting a new phase in the pandemic where the virus could develop to the point that vaccines will be undermined.

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Health

New Covid variant first present in UK might develop into dominant pressure in U.S. by March, CDC says

New Covid variant first found in UK could become dominant strain in U.S. by March, CDC says

The director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, holds up a CDC document that reads “COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Playbook for Jurisdiction Operations” while speaking during a Senate Subcommittee on Appropriations hearing on Capitol Hill Washington, United States, Sept. 16, 2020 .

Andrew Harnik | Reuters

A more contagious strain of the coronavirus, first found in the UK late last year, could become the dominant strain in the United States by March as the nation seeks to vaccinate people against the disease, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control fights contraception.

“The modeled trajectory of this variant in the USA shows Rapid growth in early 2021, which will become the predominant variant in March, “according to the CDC study published on Friday.

The researchers warned that increasing its spread could place a greater strain on the country’s hospitals and require greater public health action to curb transmission of the virus until enough people are vaccinated. Increased surveillance of the mutating viruses, coupled with better compliance with public health measures such as masks, hand washing and physical distancing, could help slow the spread of the virus.

“These measures will be more effective if taken sooner rather than later to slow the initial spread of variant B.1.1.7. Efforts to prepare the health system for further spikes in certain cases are warranted,” the researchers said.

So far, according to CDC data, which were last updated on Wednesday, the country has only found 76 Covid-19 cases with the highly infectious variant B.1.1.7. However, many of the identified cases involved people with no travel history, suggesting that the variant is spreading undetected in the community.

Global health experts have claimed that while the new strain found in the UK and a similar strain found in South Africa are more contagious, they do not appear to make people sick or make a person more likely to die.

However, more cases could ultimately lead to additional hospital stays if the nation is already home to record Covid-19 patients. The rapid transmission of the new variants could require more people to be vaccinated in order to achieve something called herd immunity, the researchers said.

Herd immunity is when enough of the population is immune to a disease, either through vaccination or natural infection, which makes it unlikely to spread and protect the rest of the community, the Mayo Clinic says.

The US has been sluggish in its vaccination efforts and missed its target of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of last year. The US has delivered more than 31.1 million doses to date, but only administered 12.3 million of them, according to CDC data.

There is also concern that the new variants, particularly the strain found in South Africa, may be more resistant to monoclonal antibody treatments, which have been shown to reduce the chances of someone ending up in hospital if infected early enough.

The CDC study

The agency’s investigation found that while the current prevalence of the variant in the US is still unknown, the analysis makes up less than 0.5% of cases. The US has not yet discovered the variant found in South Africa or any other strain identified in Japan in travelers from Brazil, the researchers said.

In their model, the researchers estimated that the variant was 50% more transmissible than the current strains. They also estimate that between 10% and 30% of people already have immunity to pre-existing infections and will be given 1 million doses of vaccine daily starting this month.

Although the prevalence of strain B.1.1.7 is estimated to be low due to its high transferability, it is likely to grow rapidly in early 2021, as the model showed. Even with vaccines, the variant will continue to spread, although the drugs showed the greatest effect in reducing the transmission of the strain in places where the disease was already regressing.

“Early efforts that can limit the spread of variant B.1.1.7, such as universal and increased adherence to public health containment strategies, will leave more time for ongoing vaccinations to achieve higher population immunity,” said it in the study.

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Business

A brand new Covid variant has been found — this is what we all know to this point

A new Covid variant has been discovered — here's what we know so far

A patient arrives at 28 de Agosto Hospital in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil on January 14, 2021 amid the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Manaus faces a lack of oxygen and sleeping places as the city has been overrun by a second surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths.

MICHAEL DANTAS | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – A new variant of coronavirus identified in Brazil has heightened concern among public health experts, leading to warnings that more new strains are likely to emerge.

The news of the variant in Brazil comes after two separate mutant strains of the virus were discovered in the UK and South Africa earlier this year.

Researchers are urgently investigating the variants of Covid that are believed to have similar characteristics in order to better understand the threat they pose.

Viruses mutate naturally, and there is no evidence that the newly discovered strains have more serious disease outcomes.

However, the Covid variants are believed to be more transmissible than the original variant that triggered the pandemic, and this could lead to higher numbers of serious infections and additional deaths.

Health officials have recommended washing hands, physically distancing yourself, and using personal protective equipment to prevent the virus from spreading.

What is known about the variant found in Brazil?

Earlier this month, the Japanese National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) announced that it had discovered a new variant of Covid in four travelers from the Brazilian state of Amazonas on January 2.

A man in his forties who was found to be asymptomatic when he arrived in Japan was hospitalized because his breathing condition was deteriorating. A woman in her thirties reported a sore throat and headache, a man between 10 and 19 years of age had a fever, and a young woman over 10 was asymptomatic.

This variant of the virus belongs to the strain B.1.1.248 and, according to the NIID, has 12 mutations in the spike protein. Spike proteins are used by the virus to enter cells in the body.

On January 14, 2021, nurses chatting outside 28 de Agosto Hospital in Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil amid the novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

MICHAEL DANTAS | AFP | Getty Images

NIID said it was difficult to immediately determine how contagious the new strain is and how effective vaccines against it are.

To date, Brazil has registered more than 8.3 million Covid cases and 207,000 virus deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The South American country is the second largest country for Covid-related deaths worldwide after the US.

Travel ban

The UK on Friday imposed a ban on travelers from South America (and Portugal and Cape Verde) to deter people from bringing the new variant into the country.

The country’s Secretary of Transportation, Grant Shapps, told the BBC this was a precautionary measure. He added that scientists believe the coronavirus vaccines will work on the new variant.

“We looked very closely at this particular mutation, unlike many other thousands, and realized that there might be a problem, not so much that the vaccine isn’t working. In fact, scientists believe it will work, just the fact is more spreadable, “said Shapps, according to Reuters.

On Thursday, British chief advisor Patrick Vallance told ITV that there was a “slightly greater risk” of the vaccine’s effectiveness with regard to the Covid variant identified in Brazil.

What about the mutant strains in the UK and South Africa?

On December 14th, the UK health authorities reported a variant to the WHO identified as SARS-CoV-2 VOC 202012/01. It is unclear how the new strain came about, but preliminary results have shown that it is highly infectious.

It originally appeared in the south east of England, but has since been the dominant variety in much of the UK and has spread to more than 50 other countries. Numerous nations then imposed bans on travelers from Great Britain.

Healthcare professionals wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) enter a makeshift ward devoted to treating possible COVID-19 coronavirus patients at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria on January 11, 2021.

Phill Magakoe | AFP | Getty Images

Independently of this, the national authorities in South Africa announced the detection of the variant 501Y.V2 on December 18. Preliminary studies have shown that variant 501Y.V2 also increases portability. It has since reportedly been found in at least 20 other countries.

The variants that emerged separately both share a genetic mutation in the spike protein.

What happens next?

Studies are currently ongoing to understand the transferability and severity of the newly discovered variants of Covid, as well as their possible effects on vaccines.

After approximately 10 months of relative inactivity, “we have seen a remarkable evolution of SARS-CoV-2 with a repeated evolutionary pattern in the worrying SARS-CoV-2 variants from the UK, South Africa and Brazil.” Dr. Trevor Bedford, a virologist and associate professor at the University of Washington, said Thursday via Twitter.

Bedford, who also works with Fred Hutch’s vaccines and infectious diseases division, warned that the hypothesis was “highly speculative” at the time. “But separately, the fact that we’ve seen three worrying variants since September suggests that more are likely to follow.”

To date, more than 93.2 million people worldwide have contracted Covid-19 with 1.99 million deaths.

Professor Devi Sridhar, Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, said on Friday the world has “become the playground of the virus to mutate and develop (especially) in countries that have allowed higher prevalence”.

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Health

C.D.C. Warns New Virus Variant Might Gasoline Enormous Spikes in Covid Circumstances

C.D.C. Warns New Virus Variant Could Fuel Huge Spikes in Covid Cases

“We know this is an overestimation of current vaccination levels,” said Michael Johansson, a researcher at the CDC. “However, we hope that by the end of this period we will reach a higher level.” ”

All viruses accumulate mutations over time; Most mutations go away, but those that offer an advantage – such as greater contagion or faster replication – can take root and spread. In particular, a more transferable variant is likely to spread quickly among the population.

The new coronavirus has accumulated worrying mutations faster than many researchers expected. Some variants also contain mutations that can easily weaken vaccine protection.

However, the immunity induced by vaccines is extremely strong and should last for years, said Paul Duprex, the Jonas Salk Chair of Vaccine Research at the University of Pittsburgh. “It won’t go from 94 percent effectiveness to 32 percent vaccine effectiveness overnight,” he said.

The variant identified in the UK differs from previous versions of the virus by about 20 mutations, including at least two mutations that may add to its greater risk of contagion. As of Jan. 15, it had been detected in more than 70 cases from 13 states – most recently in Oregon – but the actual numbers are likely to be much higher, said Dr. Butler. “CDC expects these numbers to rise in the coming weeks,” he said.

The CDC has sequenced approximately 71,000 samples of the virus, a tiny fraction of the 23 million people who have been infected in the country to date. But the agency has increased its efforts six-fold in the past two weeks, given B.1.1.7 and other variants, said Dr. Gregory Armstrong, who leads the agency’s molecular surveillance efforts.

State and local health labs have pledged to sequence approximately 6,000 samples per week, a goal they are expected to achieve in about three weeks.

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Business

Covid variant present in South Africa ‘might evade’ Eli Lilly’s antibody drug: CEO

Covid variant found in South Africa ‘could evade’ Eli Lilly's antibody drug: CEO

Dave Ricks, chairman and CEO of Eli Lilly, told CNBC on Tuesday that he expected the company’s Covid-19 antibody drug to be effective against the variant of coronavirus found in the UK

However, he said the exposure observed in South Africa is likely to be more of a challenge.

“The South African variant … is cause for concern. It has more dramatic mutations to the spike protein that these antibody drugs target,” Ricks told Squawk Box. “In theory, it could evade our drugs.”

Eli Lilly’s antibody drug was approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration in November. The drug is aimed at people recently diagnosed with Covid-19 in hopes of preventing the need for hospitalization. Regeneron’s Covid-19 antibody treatment, which President Donald Trump received after contracting the disease, has also received limited approval from the FDA.

According to Ricks, Eli Lilly wants to work with the FDA to quickly test different versions of antibodies to see if they are against virus variants like the one in South Africa.

“We actually have a large library of these antibodies now that are pre-clinical,” said Ricks. “We could think of a very expedited way to study them in a month or two and then approve their use. That seems like a smart thing because this virus is mutating.”

Discovery of variants

Coronavirus variants originally found in the UK and South Africa have received significant attention in recent weeks. They are believed to be more transmissible – but not more deadly – than previous tribes. Even so, a more contagious virus that leads to more infections could continue to weigh on healthcare systems and lead to more deaths.

The discovery of these mutations also coincides with the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines from drug companies such as Pfizer and BioNTech, as well as Moderna. It has led to some questions about whether the vaccines – along with treatments for the disease – would keep their effectiveness.

In a CNBC interview on Monday, Dr. Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech, confident that his vaccine, manufactured in partnership with Pfizer, will work against the strains of the virus found in the UK and South Africa.

Daniel O’Day, CEO of Gilead Sciences, told CNBC it was testing its remdesivir treatment against these new strains, but said Monday the antiviral drug would likely be effective. Antiviral drugs like remdesivir try to prevent the virus from replicating. In contrast, antibodies like Eli Lillys bind to the virus present in the body and try to neutralize it.

There have been no confirmed cases of the variant, which was first discovered in South Africa in America, but according to the Wall Street Journal, it was discovered in countries like Japan, South Korea, and Switzerland. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been around 70 confirmed cases of the coronavirus variant in the US that were originally found in the UK.

“It seems clear that Lilly’s single antibody, and likely Regeneron’s cocktail, will stop this as well as the normal variant,” said Ricks of the UK-affiliated tribe. “We haven’t done a clinical study of this effect, but we do have pre-clinical data that strongly suggests that it won’t be a problem.”

Use of antibody therapies

After the FDA approved emergency use for their antibody therapies to Eli Lilly and later Regeneron, problems arose with actually delivering the drug, which requires an intravenous infusion, to Covid patients. In mid-December, CNBC reported that between 5% and 20% of the doses delivered had been administered.

That number is “climbing” now, Ricks said on Monday. He pointed to Alabama as a state where the antibodies are widespread. Alabama “basically runs out and refills every week,” he said.

“There are quite a few” from state to state, Ricks admitted. “We want all states to learn from these practices and really be able to use this medicine, as the benefit is that patients, especially seniors, are kept out of the hospital. We know if you are a senior and have Covid-19 and end up in a hospital hospital bed, the prospects are not good. “

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Health

U.S. ‘flying blindly’ with regards to new Covid variant, says physician

U.S. ‘flying blindly’ when it comes to new Covid variant, says doctor

Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, warned in “The News with Shepard Smith” that the US is “flying blind” and “guessing” when it comes to a highly transmissible new variant of coronavirus in the country.

“We don’t know because we don’t do genomic sequencing of the virus the way we do in the UK and other countries,” Jha said. “We have a lot of capacity for sequencing, it’s not that we can’t. We just don’t have it and we have to pull ourselves together and start so we know if there is another variant around.” our country.”

The CDC issued a statement saying that unlike variants in the UK and South Africa, no highly contagious new US variant of the coronavirus had emerged. However, it has been found that there are likely many variants around the world.

Jha’s statements follow reports from the White House coronavirus task force. According to the report, there could be a new variant of Covid that has evolved within the US that is 50% more transferable and is driving proliferation, according to a document obtained from NBC News.

According to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data, the US recorded 4,085 deaths on Wednesday, the first time the country exceeded 4,000 deaths. Jha told host Shepard Smith it was “mind-boggling” why the US had not done large-scale genome sequencing of people infected with Covid, but noted that he was not “surprised” by the White House leadership.

“A White House that is not engaging, not interested and not really helpful really hampers the national response,” Jha said in an interview on Friday evening. “Some states are starting to fill the void, but it turns out to be a pandemic that having the federal government is really useful.”

President-elect Joe Biden announced a significant shift in the country’s fight against Covid in a new call to free almost all vaccine supplies after he took office.

In a statement to NBC News, a spokesman for Biden’s transition wrote: “The president-elect believes we need to speed up vaccine distribution … and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supplies so we can get more shots at Americans can get.” Arms now. “

It’s a strategy reversal. Under the Trump administration, the federal government stocked up cans to ensure people could get a second shot. The Pfizer vaccine requires two shots 21 days apart and the Moderna vaccine requires two shots 28 days apart.

To date, states have received more than 22 million doses, but about 70% of those doses are on shelves, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jha said he “fully supports the move by the Biden team” to release the Covid vaccine doses.

“We are in the middle of a terrible crisis,” said Jha. “We have to get people vaccinated, and it’s important that the first shot is shot in people’s arms and then making sure the second shot comes relatively soon after that I think is doable.”