According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the new strain of Covid-19 may have originated in the US and already circulating across the states but doesn’t seem to be more virulent than the old bug responsible for Covid-19.
“When you see something that is pretty prevalent in a place like the UK – there are also mutations that we’re seeing in South Africa – and given the travel throughout the world, I would not be surprised if it is already here,” Fauci said.
“When we start to look for it, we’re going to find it you have to make that assumption that the mutation that the bug is in the US.”
The director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases added during the Monday interview on PBS NewsHour that the mutation can still be fought by the newly approved vaccines.
“Most of the mutations have no functional relevance. This one has a suggestion that it might allow the virus to spread more readily,” he explained.
“We’re still seeking out evidence to prove or disapprove that. but let’s make an assumption that it is, in fact, making the virus more transmissible, even though it hasn’t been proven yet.”
He added: “It doesn’t seem at all to have any impact on the virulence or what we call the deadliness of the virus. It doesn’t make people more sick. And it doesn’t seem to have any impact on the protective nature of the vaccines that we’re currently using.”
Several virologists have echoed Fauci’s assumptions noting that the new strain was discovered in the UK for a reason: the strong monitoring system that studies countless genomic sequences of the viral samples.
“It makes sense that it was detected first in the UK because they have probably the world’s best surveillance program,” Dr. Angela Rasmussen said.
“It would not shock me at all to find out that it also is circulating in the US.”
