Video: Rochelle Walensky from CDC on COVID-19 variants, schools reopened

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Dr Rochelle Walensky, the new head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the former head of infectious diseases in Mass. General Hospital said on Friday that the United States is likely to experience community spread of the COVID-19 variant of the virus that was first discovered in South Africa.

The first two cases of the variant were diagnosed in South Carolina Thursday.

“What has happened in the last week is that we have really stepped up surveillance and sequencing in this country,” Walensky said on the “Today” show. “And I think we’ve always been concerned that we have it here and haven’t detected it yet. And now we have proof from these two cases in South Carolina that it’s actually here.

South Carolina officials said the two people who contracted the variant lived in different parts of the state, did not appear to be related and had not traveled recently. These facts are what Walensky said “concerning” about business.

“The presumption at this point is that there has been a community spread of this strain,” she said.

The variant first detected in South Africa is not the only strain of the virus to have emerged in the United States in recent weeks. The first US case of the variant originally detected in Brazil was diagnosed in Minnesota earlier this week, and the CDC has reported at least 315 US cases of the variant found in the UK.

Two cases of the British variant were detected in Massachusetts.

“Today,” host Savannah Guthrie asked Walensky how concerned she was about mutating viruses showing diminishing returns to the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.

The former MGH chief said more data on how different vaccines performed against the variants was needed.

“This has always been our concern,” Walensky said. “When viruses mutate and develop dominant strains and strains, they usually do so for some benefit to the virus. It could be that our vaccines don’t work as well. Having said that, I also want to note that we never expected a vaccine as effective as Moderna and Pfizer. [vaccines] at 95% efficiency. And I would say that even a vaccine that is 50, 60 percent effective would still be a real tool in our toolbox to fight this pandemic.

“Also, I know these mRNA vaccines have the ability to use and modify mRNA, so it would be more potent against these strains,” she added. “And that work is already underway, so we may feel like we need a side effect later on. So all of this science is going on in anticipation. “

In addition to discussing variants of the virus, Walensky weighed in on the reopening of schools, saying teachers “should be in the queue early” for vaccinations and get vaccinated in the coming weeks.

She also spoke about the masks, saying the CDC recommends people use a multi-layered fabric mask, procedural mask, or medical mask.

His comments came as did other health experts lobbied for a national plan for everyone to have access to high filtration masks, like N95s, to help stop the spread of COVID-19.

“Fifty-nine percent of Americans are wearing a mask right now… certainly N95s offer the best filtration, but in fact, they’re very hard to tolerate for long periods of time,” the CDC director said. “And I think the difference between a two-layer cloth mask and an N95 mask is relatively small compared to the difference in masking 41% of the American population.”

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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