There is no highly contagious new variant of the coronavirus in the US despite reports of a new strain of the deadly bug circulating here.
Officials said reports suggesting a new mutation were based on speculative statements made by Dr. Deborah Birx of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, but not correct, the New York Times reported Saturday.
The rumor came from a meeting where Birx discussed graphs showing the surge in the spread of the virus across the country. She theorized that a new, more transmissible variant from this country could explain the rapidly escalating number of cases, as a highly contagious new variant found in the UK did in Britain.
Her hypothesis made it into a weekly report that was sent to state governors, CNBC reported. “This acceleration suggests that there may be a US variant that has evolved here, in addition to the UK variant that is already spreading in our communities and may be 50% more transferable,” the report said.
CDC officials disagreed with her assessment and asked for it to be removed from the report, but were unsuccessful, according to the Times. After news reports of the possible variant, the agency released a formal statement refuting the theory. “To date, neither researchers nor analysts at CDC have seen the emergence of any particular variant in the United States,” said spokesman Jason McDonald.
He noted that all viruses evolve and there are likely many variants around the world evolving simultaneously. “However, it may take weeks or months to determine if there is a single variant of the virus causing COVID-19 feeding the wave in the United States, similar to the wave in the UK.”
Dr. Birx was not immediately available for comment.
The British variant, which has caused a wave of overwhelming hospitals there, has been found in several states, including New York. The CDC estimates it represents less than 0.5 percent of cases in the country so far.
A second variant has been in the United States for three months and also represents less than 0.5 percent of cases, so it is unlikely to be more contagious than other variants, a CDC official told the Times.