Spread of coronavirus variants prompts calls for changing vaccine distribution strategy

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Fri, 2021-04-09 09:50 — mike kraft

Rise of coronavirus variants will define the next phase of the pandemic in the U.S. Vaccines are effective against the three major new strains of the virus, but some places say they need more to fight highly transmissible types. Lenny Bernstein, Ariana Eunjung Cha, Terrence McCoy, Jacqueline Dupree Washington Post

Variants of the coronavirus are increasingly defining the next phase of the pandemic in the United States, taking hold in ever-greater numbers and eliciting pleas for a change in strategy against the outbreak, according to government officials and experts tracking developments.

The highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant that originated in the United Kingdom now accounts for 27 percent of all cases in this country. It is the most common variant in the United States, Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday — a development that officials predicted months ago. Two other variants, which took root in South Africa and Brazil and also are more transmissible, are cropping up with increasing frequency in parts of the United States.

The bottom line on all three remains positive. In laboratory tests, vaccines are just as effective against the variant identified in the United Kingdom as they are against the original strain of the virus. And there is only a modest drop-off in their effectiveness against two others.

“These variants emerged because we continued to give the virus more chance to spread,” said David D. Ho, whose lab at Columbia University is leading the research on the P.1 variant first discovered in Brazil. “The sooner we vaccinate everyone, the faster we will contain the viral spread and reduce the chance for new variants to emerge.”

But the overall picture hides problems in some places. One or more of the variants — which also cause more severe disease than the original version of the virus — are racing through the Northeast and the Midwest. That has prompted officials in some communities to ask for more vaccine than they would receive under the government’s population-based formula. Officials in the Northwest are watching a major outbreak of the P.1 variant in British Columbia. ...

Asked whether the administration would ever change its strategy, Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House coronavirus response team, said Wednesday that the government already is able to move vaccine supply from other parts of a state to harder-hit areas....

In addition to those three variants, the CDC considers two in California “variants of concern” and is watching them closely. It is also monitoring a variant found in New York City.

With most of the rest of the world far behind on immunizations, the virus will continue to spread and mutate, every copy with the potential to spark a variation that current vaccines will not be able to control. The odds of that remain low, experts think, but they are not zero. ...

ALSO SEE: U.S. cases involving Brazil variant on the rise, according to CDC data--updates

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