Poor Genetic Testing Hampers U.S. Fight Vs. COVID-19
A scandalous lack of funding is preventing health authorities in the United States from conducting widespread genomic identification and testing to identify new COVID-19 mutations rampaging across the country.
Health experts concur mutant COVID-19 variants are running rampant and unchecked across the U.S. due to poor genetic identification. Alarmingly, only a fraction of positive COVID-19 tests in the U.S. is sent for further genetic sequencing despite the pandemic having been around for one year.
Genetic sequencing makes it easier for scientists to detect and compare different COVID-19 mutations. The urgency to quickly ramp-up genetic testing follows the appearance of mutant strains in the United Kingdom (B.1.1.7), Brazil (P.1), and South Africa (B.1.351). All three variants have been detected in the U.S. and can worsen the already destructive pandemic.
The U.S., however, continues to lag behind other developed countries in genetic testing due to a lack of funding, which can be traced to the utter neglect of the Trump administration in combating the pandemic. The paltry number of genetic tests means several new mutations are likely circulating unchecked in the U.S.
"Genomic surveillance is probably the number-one thing, besides covid-19 testing itself, that we can do to track the virus," said RNA biochemist Dr. Keith Gagnon of Southern Illinois University to The Washington Post. "Without it, we are flying blind."
Emerging mutations have put medical experts and scientists in "a race against time" to identify new and potentially deadlier mutations of COVID-19.
The mutations keep raising fears they could potentially derail the country's frantic vaccination campaign and wipe out progress in controlling the pandemic since the first vaccines were administered in December 2020.
The few mutations so far detected in the U.S. appear are more contagious compared to the dominant strain.
"The variants that have been identified recently seem to spread more easily," said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, newly appointed director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
"They're more transmissible, which can lead to increased number of cases, and increased stress on our already overtaxed system.".
However, what scientists fear most is a mutation that will keep evolving to the point it causes more severe disease, bypasses the ability of tests to detect it, or renders vaccinations ineffective.
CDC has already detected a new variant in California and a dozen other states and named it "L425R." It isn't clear if this strain, which also has a mutation in the receptor-binding domain of the spike protein, is more transmissible.
"We don't know yet what the significance of that one is," said Dr. Gregory Armstrong, who directs the Office of Advanced Molecular Detection at CDC.
The U.S., however, seems to be making welcome headway against the latest COVID-19 wave. Key indicators for Friday all pointed to a decline in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
On Friday, no state reported a record number of weekly cases for the first time since November 1, according to the COVID Tracking Project. Hospitalizations continue to fall in almost every state, while daily deaths are also on the decline.