While the first round of COVID-19 vaccines is circulating through the country, a new threat is emerging overseas. During a recent appearance on Face The Nation, former Food and Drug Administration head Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned of a coronavirus strain emerging overseas.
“There is a new variant, and there’s a question of whether or not it’s become the predominant strain in London because of what we call founders’ effect — it just got into London and got into some early super spreading events — or whether or not it’s the result of what we call selective pressure, it’s being selected for because it has qualities that make it more likely to spread,” Gottlieb said.
“Increasingly, it does seem to be the latter. It seems like this new strain is more contagious.”
In recent weeks, the United Kingdom has implemented increasingly strict measures to stop the spread of the new strain. Travel for the holidays has almost come to a complete halt to assess the damage that may have already been done in early super spreader events.
As of now, Surgeon General Jerome Adams said that the new strain of the coronavirus should not impede the ability to vaccine and treat people within the United States. Gottlieb adds that the new strain will “probably not” impact those who have had the virus or received the vaccine.
“This virus mutates like all viruses. Flu mutates the most. And what viruses do is change their surface proteins. And once they do that, the antibodies that we’ve developed against those surface proteins no longer work. Now, flu mutates very rapidly, changes its surface proteins very rapidly. So, we constantly need to get a new flu shot. Some viruses like measles don’t change their surface proteins. And so the measles shot we got 20 years ago still works.
“Coronavirus seems somewhere in the middle. It’s going to mutate and change its surface proteins, but probably slow enough that we can develop new vaccines.”
