Top health expert calls for 'urgent' research on new UK variant

Here we go.

Researchers are keeping their eye on a mutation of the highly contagious delta variant that appears to be spreading in the United Kingdom.

The AY.4.2 variant, or “delta plus,” has accounted for about 6 percent of sequenced coronavirus cases in England in the week beginning Sept. 27 and is “on an increasing trajectory,” according to the U.K. Health Security Agency. Delta continues to be the dominant variant in the country.

The U.K. has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases, recently reporting the highest number of new cases in three months last week.

Health officials said the variant is now being monitored and assessed, although it is not yet considered a variant of concern or variant under investigation. The delta plus variant is less widespread in the U.S.

Professor Francois Balloux, director of University College London’s Genetics Institute, said the strain could be about 10 percent more transmissible than the original delta variant but is unlikely behind the recent spike in cases in the U.K.

In the U.S. former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb called for “urgent” research into delta plus.

“We need urgent research to figure out if this delta plus is more transmissible, has partial immune evasion?” Gottlieb tweeted Sunday.
LINK