Emergence of two new strains of coronavirus raises alarm in the United States

At least two new variants of the coronavirus have been identified in United States, and it’s possible that other forms of mutation could be found in the coming weeks, local experts reported.

Two independent research groups released a series of results this weekend that confirm what many scientists have long suspected: The United States has its own viral variants of Covid-19 unique, which are different from the variants detected in Great Britain and South Africa, which concern experts because of their high contagion capacity.

A few days ago, researchers at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center announced two newly identified distinct variants.

He was then joined by researchers at Southern Illinois University, who said they found a variant that may have emerged months ago and it quickly spread throughout the country.

The variant is likely the same or similar to one of the variants identified by the Ohio researchers.

Yet while viruses are constantly mutating, these mutations are not inherently dangerous, experts have warned.

More variations

Further scientific experiments will be needed to show whether the newly identified American variants are more transmissible, more lethal, or could affect the vaccine.

And the researchers predicted that sand they could identify even more variants in the coming weeks as more and more scientists start looking for them.

“This should remind us that we are not doing enough genomic surveillance,” warned Dr. Angela Rasmussen, virologist and research associate at the Center for Infection and Immunity at Columbia University School of Public Health.

“We’re going to see a lot of these articles published,” said Rasmussen, who was not involved in any of the studies.

“It remains to be seen whether or not the variants are associated with higher transmissibility,” he said.

With the emergence of new variants around the world, there are fears that they could cause more serious illness and death, be more transmissible and make vaccines ineffective. But for now, experts point out that there is no evidence that vaccines do not protect against the new strains.

The first variants of concern were identified in the UK and later in South Africa, which are believed to be more communicable but not more deadly.

Researchers at the University of Southern Illinois call this American variant 20C-US. Its origin dates back to a sample of patients in Texas from May 2020.

Since then, the variant seems to have spread across the country. According to Dr. Keith T. Gagnon, a lead investigator in the study published by Southern Illinois, 20C-US now compromises about 50% of the nation’s samples.

It’s currently prevalent in the Upper Midwest, which may explain why researchers in Ohio state have spotted a surprisingly similar variant.

Source: ANSA

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