This doctor says you should be ‘very worried’ about the Brazil coronavirus variant

One expert recently cautioned the United States to be prepared and to worry about the Brazil variant of the novel coronavirus.

Worry over Brazil variant

Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, a professor of neuroscience at Duke University’s School of Medicine, recently told CBS News that the Brazil variant— called the P.1 variant — is 2¹⁄₂ times more transmissible than the normal mutation of the coronavirus.

Nicolelis said this should be a concern for everyone, including those living in the United States.

• “If I were talking to someone in Oklahoma, I would tell him or her to be very worried about it,” Nicolelis told CBS News. “Because if Brazil is out of control, the world will be out of control in a few weeks. Because variants that are brewing here every day, every week … they will escape.” 

Brazil has been hit hard with its new variant. One week ago, the country reported more than 4,000 deaths within 24 hours, according to BBC News.

• “Hospitals are overcrowded, with people dying as they wait for treatment in some cities, and the health system is on the brink of collapse in many areas,” BBC News reports.

Brazil variant spreads in U.S.

According to The Washington Post, recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the P.1 variant from Brazil is the second most common strain of the novel coronavirus in the U.S., a sign the virus is already here.

• “At least 434 people in the United States have been infected with the variant, which has devastated Brazil, with the largest number of cases found in Massachusetts, Illinois and Florida,” according to The Washington Post.

Can the COVID-19 vaccine stop the Brazil variant?

It appears so. According to Reuters, the Pfizer vaccine — which is similar to the Moderna vaccine because it uses mRNA technology — has been shown to combat the Brazil variant.

“Blood taken from people who had been given the vaccine neutralized an engineered version of the virus that contained the same mutations carried on the spike portion of the highly contagious P.1 variant first identified in Brazil,” per Reuters.

It’s unclear what the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can do against the Brazil variant.