EDITOR’S NOTE: (8 January 2021, 20:00 ET): Following the publication of an earlier version of this article, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a statement saying that it had not yet seen a new American variant of the coronavirus emerge, although he noted that there can be many variants all over the world. The New York Times reports that the proposal for a very contagious new American variant is based on speculation by dr. Deborah Birx and that the CDC is opposed to it. NBC News did not confirm the report, and dr. Birx declined to comment when it was reached by NBC News. The article has been updated to reflect these developments.
A report by the White House Coronavirus Task Force states that the explosive increase in coronavirus cases in the United States over the past few months could possibly be caused by a more contagious American variant of the virus. A separate statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the researchers did not see the emergence of an American variant.
“This fall / winter surge has almost twice the increase in cases as spring and summer rise,” according to the White House document sent to the states. “This acceleration suggests that there may be an American variant that has developed here, in addition to the British variant that is already spreading in our communities and is 50 percent more transferable.”
However, the CDC statement was much more skeptical about the possibility. It is likely that there are many variants of the coronavirus around the world, the statement said, but to date, neither researchers nor CDC analysts have seen the emergence of a specific variant in the United States as seen with the emergence ‘variants in the United Kingdom or South Africa.
The New York Times reports that the task force hypothesis was the result of speculation by dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus coordinator, said the CDC had asked her not to include the speculation in the document. Contact by NBC News, dr. Birx did not comment.
Full coverage of coronavirus outbreak
The task force document, which was also posted online by the state of Kentucky, does not identify a specific new tribe, nor does it confirm that one was detected in the U.S. The document rather suggests that the possibility of a new strain accelerating rapidly in cases in recent months.
The document, dated Sunday 3 January, comes as states across the country detect cases of the more contagious British variant. In the UK, a rapid spread of the variant, known as B.1.1.7, closed the country tightly this week as business increased.
In the US, cases began to increase in the fall. The daily case first counts 200,000 on December 6, and the daily average has since grown, according to NBC News.
“I would be surprised if there are no new variants appearing in the United States,” said Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and current president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, said. Besser is not a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
If one of these variants somehow makes the virus spread more easily or quietly, Besser said it ‘should be even more of a reason why we should follow the public health advice: social distance, wash your hands, carry masks and avoid those situations where we know viruses spread more easily, such as enclosed indoor spaces. ‘
Indeed, the document emphasizes the need for preventive efforts to slow down the spread.
“Aggressive mitigation should be used to suit a more aggressive virus; without uniform implementation of effective face masking (two or three layers and well-fitting) and strict social distance, epidemics can quickly worsen as these variants become widespread and predominant, ”reads both the British variant and the potential American variant.
Download the NBC News app for full coverage of coronavirus outbreak
A member of the task force confirmed the document’s authenticity to NBC News.
Mutations in the coronavirus are common, and according to the CDC, a new mutation is introduced approximately every two weeks.
The wider a virus is, the more opportunities it has to mutate, scientists say.
“The more we do not limit the spread, the more opportunities the virus has to develop,” Gigi Kwik Gronvall, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Safety, said in an earlier interview with NBC News.
The coronavirus has probably mutated thousands of times since the original strain appeared in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, said Brian O’Roak, a human geneticist at Oregon Health & Science University. Samples of the virus in O’Roak’s own laboratory were mutated 15 to 20 times compared to the original strain, he said.
Even for variants that are more common, the changes are mostly silent, meaning that there are small shifts in the genetic code of the virus and do not affect its behavior. But other mutations, such as those in the British variant, can be important and affect how the virus behaves.
Follow NBC HEALTH Twitter & Facebook.
Lauren Dunn and Monica Alba contributed.