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– The COVID-19 variant causing “chaos” in the UK “is already in the US,” warned former FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb Monday on CNBC. More than 40 countries have long banned travel to and from the UK, but at this point Gottlieb doesn’t think it would matter if the US followed suit. “We will have an epidemic that will continue to build up over the next three or four weeks, we will peak, and then we will start to see infection rates fall as we see vaccinations rolled out,” he said. the mutated species. Dr. Anthony Fauci made similar comments on Monday, telling PBS, “You have to make that assumption” that the variant is already there.
Although it is said to be up to 50% more transmissible, so far there is no evidence that the variant is more deadly or that it would respond differently to vaccines. Both Pfizer and Moderna are testing their vaccines against it, CNN reports. “As the virus continues to spread around the world, we will start to see more of these variants, and so it is important to get the population vaccinated and eradicate these infections,” said Gottlieb, pointing out that vaccines most likely should be in the over time as the virus continues to develop. Some political leaders have called on the Trump administration to stop traveling from the UK, but USA Today reports US health officials that there is no reason to do so. New York has gotten an agreement from at least one airline to require passengers to test negative for the virus before boarding a plane from the UK to the US. (Read more stories about the coronavirus.)