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NEW YORK (AP) – As states lift mask rules and ease restrictions on restaurants and other businesses amid drop in cases, public health officials say authorities are ignoring potential variants most dangerous COVID-19 spreading quietly in the United States
Scientists widely agree that the United States simply does not have enough control over variants to reverse public health measures and risks attempting another phase of the pandemic after allowing the virus to rage the country over the course of the last year and kill. nearly 500,000 people.
“Now is not the time to fully open up,” said Karthik Gangavarapu, a researcher at the Scripps Research Institute whose team works closely with health officials in San Diego to monitor mutant versions of the coronavirus. “We must remain vigilant.”
Over the past two weeks, daily averages of coronavirus cases and deaths have fallen by about half in the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And Wednesday, over 40 million people – about 12% of the population – had received at least one dose of a vaccine.
But experts, including Dr Anthony Fauci and CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky, say the downward trend could be reversed if new variations were required.
The problem, as experts see, is that the United States has been slow to put in place a rigorous genetic surveillance system to track the spread of the variants and measure the weight they have gained here.
“The point is, we’re kind of in the dark,” said Dr. Diane Griffin, who studies infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins. She said the variants are “probably widespread although we don’t know it.”
On Wednesday, the Biden administration announced it will spend $ 200 million to have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention triple its levels of genetic sequencing to identify mutations that could make the coronavirus more infectious or deadly. Separately, Congress is considering a bill that would provide $ 1.75 billion for such work.
A more contagious and possibly deadlier variant that was first identified in Britain has been found in at least 42 states. Other variants first detected in South Africa and Brazil have been reported in the United States in low numbers. That in South Africa is of particular concern because of evidence that it can decrease the effectiveness of vaccines.
“We are chasing a moving target. It’s changing a bit too quickly for comfort, ”said Dr. Lucio Miele, geneticist at LSU Health Sciences in New Orleans. “We have to be proactive. We are not invulnerable. “
Detecting the variants and knowing where and to what extent they are spreading could be essential to preventing another deadly wave of COVID-19 like the one that overwhelmed hospitals this winter.
In Europe, in late 2020, once surveillance started reporting variants like the one raging cases out of control and overwhelming hospitals in England, governments across the continent responded by imposing restrictions on travel and strict locks.
But in the United States, the emergence of variants has been greeted with a shrug among many state and local officials amid the overall decline in confirmed infections.
Florida, for example, has the highest number of case of the British variant, according to the CDC. But state leaders already appear to have moved away from the coronavirus, including Governor Ron DeSantis.
Asked about the rise in new strains last week, DeSantis told reporters, “The media is obviously concerned about this. You really like it.
Florida repealed many restrictions and welcomed 25,000 fans for the Super Bowl in Tampa and 30,000 spectators for the Daytona 500 a week later in what was the largest sporting event in the country since the start of the pandemic.
Restrictions are also relaxed in California, which is recovering from a surge of COVID-19 that has gripped its hospital system in recent months. California officials expect a substantial number of counties to be allowed to offer limited-capacity dining and open theaters, museums and gymnasiums. The state is also reporting the second highest number of cases in the country for the UK variant.
Elsewhere, states like North Dakota, Montana and Iowa have lifted mask warrants in recent weeks, and many more have eased restrictions on businesses like restaurants, bars and stores.
Public health experts say part of the problem is that the latest statistics can be misleading. The CDC, for example, reported only about 1,300 cases of emerging variants nationwide.
“It’s an undercoverage,” said Johns Hopkins epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Rivers. She and others say the figure reflects the country’s underdeveloped genetic surveillance system.
Local health authorities face the same statistical problem.
Last month, Minnesota was the first state to detect the COVID-19 variant identified in Brazil. By testing about 2% to 3% of the state’s COVID-19 positive samples, the Minnesota Department of Health has since identified two cases of the Brazilian variant and 40 of the UK variant.
“It’s a somewhat insignificant number,” said Kathy Como-Sabetti, epidemiology manager in the health department. “It’s a small fraction of our total number of cases.”
Como-Sabetti said the state is bracing for a potential wave of illness if the variants proliferate unchecked.
Some scientists have called for the United States to test about 5% of samples positive for COVID-19 – which this week would represent about 3,900 sequences – to stay on top of variants. Currently, the US is sequencing between 0.3% and 0.5% of virus samples. Britain sequenced around 8% of its positive cases and Denmark around 12%.
“We are woefully behind the times when it comes to sequencing technology,” Miele said.
Meanwhile, Chicago and the surrounding suburbs allowed indoor dining to resume in January for the first time since October and have reopened, with crowd limits, major cultural attractions including the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium. Boston opened gyms, cinemas and sightseeing cruises in the harbor this month.
Restaurants in New York City were given the green light to open their dining indoors last week, despite concerns from some local officials.
“Are we challenging the global model of variants that double every 10 days? tweeted Mark D. Levy, Member of City Council. “Or are variations developing here and we’re just not told?”
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AP medical editor Mike Stobbe in New York contributed to this report.
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The Associated Press’s Department of Health and Science receives support from the Department of Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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