CDC Says Not To Worry Yet on the New 'USA Variant' of COVID-19

By Neil P. First Posted: Jan 09, 2021 11:39 AM EST

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) clarified there is no "USA variant" of COVID-19, contradicting the White House coronavirus task force's report on such variant.

(Photo : Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

CDC Clarifies That There Is No USA Variant of COVID-19

The CDC said there is no USA variant yet, which might increase COVID-19 infections and deaths in the country. The agency's clarification came after the White House COVID-19 Task Force released a report on Sunday that there might be a USA variant.

According to a recently published report of CNN News, members of the task force said the variant could be fueling the unprecedented number of COVID-19 cases in the country. They further noted that the variant is similar to the virus mutation detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa that seems to be spreading so quickly.

However, the CDC told Business Insider that there is currently no evidence that a USA variant exists and could take weeks or even months to identify a single variant of the virus that causes the rise in COVID-19 infections in the country.

On the other hand, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that the hypothesis of the White House COVID-19 task force of the existence of USA variant is part of the fact that U.S. and U.K.'s pandemic growth curves are similar.

Increase of COVID-19 Cases in the Country

According to the COVID-19 task force report, this "fall/winter surge has been at nearly twice the rate of rise of cases as the spring and summer surges." It added that this acceleration suggests "there may be a USA variant that has evolved here, in addition to the UK variant that is already spreading in our communities."

However, the New York Times reported that the agency did not provide enough evidence, prompting the CDC to release a statement about the suspected variant.

Paul Bieniasz, a virologist at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, told Business Insider that the increase of infections in the country could not only be associated with the virus mutation. Bieniasz said human behavior has a large effect on virus transmission that increases the number of cases.

How the New Variant is Monitored?

According to a published report in Yahoo News, researchers genetically sequence samples of the virus and track the changes over time to monitor the many versions of the coronavirus circulating worldwide. Each separated by a handful of tiny changes in its genome.

However, it was found that the U.S. is behind many countries when it comes to keeping tabs on new variants compared to the U.K. The CDC said the country has only sequenced 2.5 out of every 1,000 compared to the U.K.'s 45 out of every 1,000 cases.

This is likely the reason why the government missed the entry of the COVID-19 variant detected in the U.K. It was only last Dec. 29 that the first case involving the B.1.1.7 virus was reported in the country, particularly in Colorado.