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Yahoo Finance’s Kristin Myers and Immunotherapy Scientist Dr. Leo Nissola discuss the latest strain of COVID-19.
Video transcript
KRISTIN MYERS: I now want to turn to Dr. Leo Nissola, Immunotherapy Scientist. Dr, thank you very much for joining us again. I want to ask you about this mutation that Anjalee just described. We hear that he has already reached the United States.
I wonder if people should really start to worry that this will make the pandemic worse.
LEO NISSOLA: Hi, and thanks for inviting me. It is a pleasure to be here with you again. And I wish I had better news to share. Well, as you’ve seen in the news, and we’ve heard from multiple sources, that this new strain which first appeared in the UK is more contagious. It’s more contagious.
And what it does mean is that this virus is passing from person to person faster than before. So we don’t yet know what caused this new mutation, whether it was for selective pressure or something else that made these peak protein changes.
So what we do know is that this new strain is called B117 and it is easier for this virus to infect other people. As many people have already shared these concerns in the news, we don’t know if this is already in the United States.
What worries me is that at the federal level, we have not yet put in place travel restrictions. And that doesn’t necessarily mean a travel ban. But that means we should look at our testing capabilities and see if the tests we have in the US are able to identify this new strain. And if not, we should be able to update them.
KRISTIN MYERS: Wait a minute, doctor, I want to cut you off there, because I have to ask you …
LEO NISSOLA: Yeah.
KRISTIN MYERS: – are you telling me that it is possible that the tests we currently have do not even detect this new mutation and this new strain of the virus? So that means, I guess, really – because it’s pretty amazing to me – that if this new strain is already here in the United States, that someone could be out there and infected, maybe asymptomatic, and couldn’t the test even pick that up? Is that what you say?
LEO NISSOLA: It’s correct.
KRISTIN MYERS: Sensational.
LEO NISSOLA: So we don’t know if this new strain is there. And we don’t know if the tests we have already approved in the United States are able to detect this new strain. So we don’t know that. So for all we know –
KRISTIN MYERS: So about these travel restrictions, then …
LEO NISSOLA: – this strain may already be there.
KRISTIN MYERS: So on the travel restrictions …. I know you’re saying maybe we really need to rethink them. Should we also, then, really start to consider that these flights coming in from the UK, we need to set up coronavirus screenings for the passengers arriving on these flights? Because right now the United States is not doing that.
LEO NISSOLA: Absolutely. I think – I just heard Governor Cuomo say on television today that New York is going to take this in hand. And I agree with that. Because we, at the federal level, need to be able to identify who is coming to the country, what they are bringing with them – whether it’s a new strain of coronavirus or whatever. And we haven’t seen that yet.
But again, a problem with taking these state-level measures is that someone could fly from the UK to Chicago, for example, and then fly to New York. And then you would miss this new strain or this new virus that could potentially be happening with these people.
So there are a lot of things that concern me. One of them is that I don’t know if the tests we have today that are already approved are able to detect this new strain. And I don’t know if this virus, this new strain of the virus, is already there or not. It’s not clear.
KRISTIN MYERS: Should the US really start considering more lockdowns, especially as we have news of this new variety, especially since we have the holidays and we know people are going to be reuniting with their friends and with their family? We have Christmas. We have the New Year right after.
And we know – and you’ve been on this program and you’ve even said – that the winter months will only get worse. We are not yet at the top. We currently have 18.2 million cases.
LEO NISSOLA: Were not.
KRISTIN MYERS: This number will only grow. So should we really start saying, hey, you know what? We actually need to close indoor restaurants, not just in New York City, but we should start closing indoor restaurants everywhere. We need to be a lot more restrictive than we are currently, especially since this new strain might be out there and we can’t even detect it.
LEO NISSOLA: Well, a couple of things there – I don’t agree with locking or free-for-all. What I agree with is that there is common ground. There is the need for contact tracing, which is really difficult to implement in the United States due to civil liberties – of which, of course, there are the privacy concerns that I think we should also discuss more about. actively.
For me, I believe there is a need to make over-the-counter, free, and at-home COVID testing easier and accessible. We are only taking small steps to achieve this. If you can get tested today and make sure you test negative before you go to see your grandma, that would be an amazing thing. But it’s really hard to do.
Believe me. I have tried to follow this path with my own family and with my own relatives. It is not easy. You still have to jump a lot of different hoops to be tested. And if you’re asymptomatic, and if you haven’t been in contact with someone who has tested positive, in different states, that’s hard to get.
But I do think there are things we can do to improve our ability to contain the spread of this virus and flatten the infection curve again. And that’s frequent testing, free testing on asymptomatic people, contact tracing, and making sure people understand that we’re not asking people to be completely locked in their homes during the holiday season.
All we ask is that people wear a mask when they go out, be conscientious about their health, and in case you experience any different symptoms, go to the CDC website. and make sure to check the boxes to see if they have any potential symptoms of COVID or not.
KRISTIN MYERS: Right.
LEO NISSOLA: And for them not to gather with people outside their home, especially in this winter season. As you mentioned, we expect COVID cases to increase. And with this new strain, COVID cases will increase much faster.
KRISTIN MYERS: So at this point, as a last question for you here, Dr – and I hate to inject that kind of bad news just as we wrap this up – but how much do you think it’s going to happen in January after the holidays and can – even being in February, which is the coldest month, at least for us here in New York? How bad do you think it will become?
LEO NISSOLA: So I think it depends, again, on the states. States that still allow people to go to eat indoors, people to go to the gym or bars, as you’ve seen in Florida – you’d expect to see cases grow so exponentially and infections increase.
And again, our health care system is already at the breaking point. In California, many intensive care units are at full capacity. So I’m worried that the winter season is approaching, the cases will increase. And we’re going to share a lot of bad news unless we include this in a federal level of COVID restrictions and make sure people understand how serious this is.
I still get a lot of emails and questions on my DMs on Twitter or Instagram from people who still don’t take this seriously. And I am very surprised.
KRISTIN MYERS: Okay. Well, hopefully some people, who are at least watching our conversation, start to take this a little more seriously, especially with this new strain. Dr. Leo Nissola, Immunotherapy Scientist, thank you very much for joining us today.
LEO NISSOLA: Thank you for hosting me. Happy Holidays.
KRISTIN MYERS: Happy holidays to you too.
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