It may be the most dangerous variant of COVID-19, experts say

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The spread of COVID-19 across the United States has slowed. Confirmed cases, which were increasing at a rate of more than 200,000 per day less than two months ago, are currently increasing to less than 100,000. Nevertheless, the United States has 28,761,741 confirmed cases, or about 25% of the total. global. Deaths, which were increasing by more than 4,000 a day two months ago, have fallen to a daily increase of nearly 2,000. At 515,138, they represent about 20% of the world total.

Among the major concerns of epidemiologists and public health officials are variants. Three have appeared on CDC’s tracking systems and the agency reports their spread daily. The most talked about come from the UK, South Africa and Brazil. The British variant is spreading faster than the one that has been plaguing the United States for over a year. Another concern is that current vaccines may not be as effective against these strains as the currently dominant vaccine in America. And the UK version is spreading fast enough to become the dominant version in America by the end of March.

Vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are the main hope for reducing the growth of COVID-19 cases.

Recently, a new variant has appeared in California. There is much to fear that this is extremely deadly. The Daily Mail reports:

The variant of the coronavirus, known as B.1.427 / B.1.429 – also sometimes referred to as CAL.20C / L452R – first appeared in California in May 2020.

Experts predict that the variant, which spreads as easily as those in the UK and South Africa, will account for 90% of state cases by March.

The variant has also been discovered in several other states, including Washington, Alaska, Hawaii, Colorado, Nevada, and Oregon.

The Los Angeles Times quotes a scientist who has been following the new variants:

Californians, along with the rest of the country, are bracing for an attack from the UK’s most transmissible strain known as B.1.1.7. But they should know that a possibly equally worrying rival strain has already set in and will likely account for 90% of the state’s infections by the end of next month, said Dr. Charles Chiu, an infectious disease researcher and doctor at UCSF.

“The devil is already here,” said Chiu, who has led a team of geneticists, epidemiologists, statisticians and other scientists in an in-depth analysis of the new variant, which they call B.1.427 / B. 1.429. “I wish it was different. But science is science. “

The “COVID-19 cases in the United States caused by variants” page shows that there are 2,102 cases of B.1.1.7 in 45 states, 49 cases of B.1.351 in 15 states and six cases of P .1 in 5 states. The agency does not yet present data for CAL.20C / L452R.

The journal Science summarizes the concern over the new variant:

A new strain of the pandemic coronavirus, first identified and now spreading in California, appears to be slightly more transmissible and increases the risk of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and patient death, according to studies by laboratory and pre-printed epidemiological data.

This in part confirms the growing concern that the variants could cause another push.

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