White House Task Force announces new variant in U.S. as U.K. strain is studied.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force revealed on Friday that a new variant of the virus had evolved in the United States. The report said, “This fall/winter surge has been at nearly twice the rate of rising of cases as the spring and summer surges. 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 and may be 50% more transmissible.”
However, preliminary research done by medical group Pfizer shows hopeful results in the use of their COVID-19 vaccine against a worrying strain that spread through Britain last month. The COVID-19 vaccine causes the recipient to create antibodies against the virus, and if the study is true for one variant, it could be true for all. “A mutation will change one little place, but it’s not going to disrupt binding to all of them,” said Dr. Frederic Bushman, a specialist on the current virus mutations.
As the U.K. variant of the virus was discovered in the U.S. in December, Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary Admiral Brett Giroir said that health officials believe the vaccines would be effective against the variant.
As the Lord Leads, Pray with Us…
- For the Coronavirus Task Force as the U.S. variant is evaluated.
- That God would guide the president’s administration on how to increase public health.
- For scientists and laboratories as they study data regarding the effectiveness of the vaccines.
- For HHS and the CDC as they track the virus and its mutations.
Sources: AP, CNN
