- More contagious COVID-19 strains from the United Kingdom and South Africa are already spreading across dozens of US states.
- The new strains threaten to hamper the tremendous progress in the fight to lower the coronavirus infection rate.
- New COVID-19 infections have dropped significantly over the past few weeks and have dropped by 43% in the past two weeks alone.
Over the past twelve months, the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc in the United States. To date, the U.S. has seen nearly 28 million coronavirus infections and more than 490,000 COVID-related deaths.
The good news, however, is that we are finally starting to see noticeable progress in the effort to defeat the coronavirus once and for all. To begin with, the COVID infection rate has dropped by 43% in the last two weeks alone. In fact, the COVID infection rate today is about as low as it was in October. What’s more, hospitalizations and deaths associated with coronavirus have both decreased by more than 30% over the past two weeks.
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In addition, the COVID vaccination effort – after a slow start – is currently moving faster than many health experts have predicted. While the initial goal was to administer 1 million vaccine doses every day, today the US averages about 1.6 million doses per day. Think about this: from last Thursday to Sunday, an average of 1.9 vaccine doses are administered every day.
There is finally a reason to be optimistic that the coronavirus pandemic by this time next year will be nothing more than a distant memory. It is important to remember that we are not out of the woods yet. Despite an encouraging decline in infection rates and a promising vaccination effort, new COVID strains from the UK and South Africa have involved many health experts.
As you have probably heard by now, the new COVID strains from the United Kingdom and South Africa are 50% more contagious than the original strain because they are believed to cause longer periods of infection.
A recent Harvard study notes:
These data provide evidence that SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 may cause longer infections with a similar peak viral concentration compared to non-B.1.1.7 SARS-CoV-2, and this prolonged duration may contribute to B.1.1 .7 SARS-CoV-2’s increased portability. The findings are preliminary as they are based on seven B.1.1.7 cases. However, if confirmed by additional data, a longer isolation period may be required than the current recommended 10 days after the onset of the symptom to effectively interrupt secondary infections by this variant.
Both tribes are already in the US, and some experts believe the British tribe could dominate as quickly as next month.
Even more problematic is that the South African strain is somewhat more resistant to existing COVID-19 vaccines. It is also speculated that both strains are more deadly than the original.
In light of the above, warns dr. Fauci that people should still follow the existing guidelines for the safety of the coronavirus because the new strains have the potential to cause major outbreaks.
“The number of cases is currently declining on a fairly downward trajectory,” Fauci said. ‘It can turn around and go wrong if we have the dominance of a virus that has a better transmissibility. This situation dominates the picture a bit. ‘
At this point, there is almost something of the race to vaccinate as many Americans as possible before more infectious COVID-19 strains become dominant. The vaccination effort itself is, of course, hampered by two variables: a limited vaccine supply and a general mistrust of the COVID-19 vaccine itself.
So far, Fauci has said:
But if you have some vaccine hesitation in the general community – people who are vaccine deniers or skeptical or hesitant – we have no good mechanism for getting the general public vaccinated. You can do this in schools or hospitals. Elsewhere, it’s really a problem.
To achieve herd immunity, about 75 to 80% of the country will have to be vaccinated, or about 260 million people. To date, nearly 41 million Americans have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine, meaning it can take several more months to reach herd immunity.
The good news is that the COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson may once again receive an emergency use authorization from the FDA later this month. If this happens, the supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses in the US will increase significantly and will help speed up the vaccination effort.
Yoni Heisler is a lifelong Mac user and Apple enthusiast and has been writing about Apple and the technology industry for over 6 years. His writing has appeared in Edible Apple, Network World, MacLife, Macworld UK and most recently in TUAW. If he does not write and analyze the latest events with Apple, he likes to catch Improv programs in Chicago, play football and cultivate new addiction to TV programs, the latest examples of which are The Walking Dead and Broad City .