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Sunday, December 10, 2023 | 
U.S. & World

New U.K. COVID-19 strain is ‘already in the U.S.,’ expert says

Dr. Scott Gottlieb said the new U.K. COVID-19 strain is likely in the United States already

By Herb Scribner Herb Scribnerhscribner@deseretnews.com
SHARE New U.K. COVID-19 strain is ‘already in the U.S.,’ expert says
Lorries are parked on the M20 near Folkestone, Kent, England as part of Operation Stack after the Port of Dover was closed and access to the Eurotunnel terminal suspended following the French government’s announcement, Monday, Dec. 21, 2020.

Lorries are parked on the M20 near Folkestone, Kent, England as part of Operation Stack after the Port of Dover was closed and access to the Eurotunnel terminal suspended following the French government’s announcement, Monday, Dec. 21, 2020.

AP

The new mutation of the novel coronavirus in the United Kingdom “is already in the United States,” Dr. Scott Gottlieb recently told CNBC.

What’s going on?

Gottlieb — the former chief of the Food and Drug Administration — said that the new highly contagious mutation of COVID-19 found in the United Kingdom “is already in the U.S.”

  • “I don’t think a travel ban, at this point, is going to prevent this mutated strain from coming into the United States,” Gottlieb said, according to CNBC.. “We’re going to have an epidemic that continues to build over the course of the next three or four weeks, we’ll reach a peak, and then we’ll start to see infection rates decline as we see vaccinations get rolled out.”
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Context:

The new COVID-19 variant is forcing the United Kingdom into an immediate lockdown. The government has added a number of restrictions, too, which I wrote about for the Deseret News.

The new mutation is somewhere between 50% to 70% more contagious than the current version of the virus. Experts are still trying to figure out if the new COVID-19 vaccine will stop the new mutation, as I wrote about for the Deseret News.

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This is expected:

Gottlieb said the virus’ mutation isn’t all that surprising, according to CNBC.

  • “As the virus continues to spread around the world, we’re going to start to see more of these variants, and that’s why it’s important to get the population vaccinated and snuff out these infections,” Gottlieb said. “The more infections you have, the more chances that these variants start to propagate.”