A new, more transmissible variant of the coronavirus first discovered in the UK has been discovered in 10 US states, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which warned that it was the dominant circulating variant in the Could become United States. by March.
The variant, known as B.1.1.7, is believed to be twice as transmissible as the current version of the virus circulating in the US, but so far there is no evidence that it causes more serious disease or is otherwise transmitted .
Its rapid spread will increase the burden on health resources at a time when infections are on the rise, further undermining pressured care resources and increasing the need for better adherence to mitigation strategies, such as social distancing and wearing a mask, the company said. CDC Friday in its weekly report on death and illness.
It also increases the percentage of the population that needs to be vaccinated to achieve protective herd immunity to control the pandemic, the CDC said.
The UK variant is currently in 10 states, but has been diagnosed in only 76 of the 23 million US cases reported to date.
However, it is likely that this version of the virus is more widespread in the country than it is currently reported, CDC scientists said.
Former FDA chief in charge of vaccination drive
Separately on Friday, U.S. President-elect Joe Biden David Kessler, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), chose a higher role in the new administration’s efforts to increase the availability of COVID-19 vaccines, said Biden’s transition team. .
The news came when Biden’s team predicted that by next month the US would be killed by some 500,000 as a result of the pandemic, and as the president-elect would make plans to ramp up vaccinations.
Kessler, a pediatrician and attorney who led the FDA under Presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton, will become chief science officer of the government’s COVID-19 response.
The Biden administration plans to reorganize the vaccine distribution effort that outgoing President Donald Trump’s administration called Operation Warp Speed, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
Biden has called the Trump administration’s rollout of the vaccine “a dire failure.”
His own plan calls on Congress to spend $ 20 billion on vaccine distribution.
“We have not fully funded the COVID response yet,” Ron Klain, Biden’s new chief of staff, said in an interview with the Washington Post on Friday.
“We will see 500,000 deaths in this country sometime next month,” Klain said.
Kessler was co-chair of Biden’s advisory board on the pandemic. As head of the FDA, Kessler shortened the time it took to approve drugs for the treatment of AIDS and tried to regulate the tobacco industry.
His appointment comes at a critical point in the government’s efforts to accelerate the development and distribution of vaccines and treatments for the coronavirus in a country particularly hard hit by the virus.
Biden has vowed to get 100 million COVID-19 vaccine doses in Americans during his first 100 days in office.
That rate is more than double the current rate, but would still leave most of the country without a shot in late April.
The Trump administration had aimed to give vaccine doses to 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 – but according to CDC data, only 11.1 million shots had been administered as of Thursday.
In an effort to expand vaccination efforts, the Trump administration said on Tuesday that it was releasing millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses it had withheld from second shots.
The step was a departure from a previous strategy of storing enough doses to ensure that the required second doses of the vaccines are available.
The Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, approved last month, require two doses.