Fauci on new COVID-19 strain: 'I wouldn't be surprised if it has already reached US'

US top infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci on December 21 that the new COVID-19 variant linked to the drastic surge of cases in the UK has probably already reached the United States. While talking to PBS' Newshour, the director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease said that people have to “make that assumption” considering the travel that was permitted throughout the world and the cases of the new strain are hiked in the UK, South Africa. Therefore, Fauci concluded that he would ‘not be surprised’ if the variant has already reached the US. 

“You have to make that assumption,” Fauci said. “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's already here.”

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Further US top infectious disease said ‘we’re going to find it’ indicating that the medical professionals in the United States will ‘run into’ the new strain of the novel coronavirus once they start looking for the same. Even though the variant is not a prevalent one unlike in the UK but according to Fauci ‘sooner or later,’ the doctors will find it. 

“Certainly it's not yet the prevalent one, the way it seems to have assumed that prevalent nature in the UK, but we're going to be looking for it right now, and I'm sure sooner or later we're going to run into it and find it.”

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‘Most mutations have no functional relevance’

Fauci also noted that mutations are common for viruses and most modifications “have no functional relevance”. However, he added that the specific variant that can be found across the UK might allow the disease to spread more easily. The chief medical adviser for the incoming Joe Biden administration said that the researchers are still looking into the ability of the new strain to spread which he assured has no impact on the deadliness of the virus.

“This one has a suggestion that it might allow the virus to spread more readily...It doesn't make people more sick and it doesn't seem to have any impact on the protective nature of the vaccine that we're currently using,” he said.

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