Health News
Reuters Staff
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States is monitoring the more contagious variant of COVID-19 after British officials warned it could also be more deadly, two top US health officials said on Saturday, warning that more data was needed.
Officials are somewhat more concerned about a separate variant of South Africa, although it has not yet been identified among U.S. cases of the new coronavirus, Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and dr. Anthony Fauci, president Joe Biden’s top COVID-19 medical adviser, also said.
Collins noted that UK data were preliminary and said it was unclear why those with the British variant had a higher risk of death, either due to changes in the virus itself or due to other external causes, such as pressure on the healthcare system.
“Let’s take it as something to keep a close eye on,” he told MSNBC in an interview.
Fauci told MSNBC separately that he should look at the raw data from the UK before fully assessing the risk of death and that US officials are considering how the two new strains could affect the effectiveness of the vaccine.
“These are serious situations that we follow very closely, and if necessary, we will adapt to them,” Fauci said. The addition of vaccines may change in the coming months if necessary.
Their comments come as Democratic President Joe Biden takes the reins of the country’s COVID-19 response, trying to rekindle the fight against the highly contagious disease and incite a warlike stance. In a spate of actions since taking office on Wednesday, Biden has unveiled a new U.S. strategic plan to curb the outbreak, including signing numerous executive orders to increase vaccines and increase mask use.
The United States is the country hardest hit by COVID-19, with 24.70 million cases and 413.775 deaths by midnight Friday. In the past week, an average of 3,089 Americans died from the disease, while 20 U.S. states died on record this month.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Friday warned that the British variant was associated with a higher level of mortality.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned last week that the British variant, which is already spreading in at least ten US states, could become the dominant variant in the United States by March. The variant, known as B.1.1.7, is apparently twice as contagious as the current one circulating nationwide.
“At the moment, we are not worried about that,” Collins said, as vaccines still seem effective against it. “We are a little more concerned about a South African variant.”
Fauci, a leading American expert on infectious diseases, acknowledges his concern and calls the data on the South African variant a little “more ominous”, even though it seems that the current vaccines still protect against both variants.
Scientists said on Wednesday that the South African variant could reduce the effectiveness of current vaccines, which also raises the possibility of re-infection.
Britain has banned travelers from some African countries in an attempt to stop the spread of the strain in the UK and is considering further restrictions.
Biden has moved to impose a mandatory quarantine for air passengers arriving in the United States, although details have not yet been released. He also claims that passengers in the US should have a negative COVID-19 test starting Tuesday.
Even without a greater risk of death, more contagious variants increase the pressure on officials to vaccinate the population – a campaign that many state and local officials said was slow and chaotic and one that Biden promised to improve.
‘If you get more cases, you’ll get more hospitalizations. And if you get more hospitalizations, you will eventually get more deaths, ‘Fauci told reporters in the White House on Thursday.