{"id":156722,"date":"2021-01-17T23:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-17T20:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/fear-of-new-virus-variant-pushes-u-s-toward-more-genomic-sequencing\/"},"modified":"2021-01-17T23:13:00","modified_gmt":"2021-01-17T20:13:00","slug":"fear-of-new-virus-variant-pushes-u-s-toward-more-genomic-sequencing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/fear-of-new-virus-variant-pushes-u-s-toward-more-genomic-sequencing\/","title":{"rendered":"#: Fear of new virus variant pushes U.S. toward more genomic sequencing"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3bbb572cc81\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3bbb572cc81\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/fear-of-new-virus-variant-pushes-u-s-toward-more-genomic-sequencing\/#The_CDC_said_this_week_that_the_new_B117_strain_may_become_the_most_dominant_form_of_the_virus_in_the_US_by_March\" >The CDC said this week that the new B.1.1.7 strain may become the most dominant form of the virus in the U.S. by March<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-4' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-4'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/fear-of-new-virus-variant-pushes-u-s-toward-more-genomic-sequencing\/#Jaimy_Lee\" >Jaimy Lee<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong>#: Fear of new virus variant pushes U.S. toward more genomic sequencing<\/strong>&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"article__subhead\" itemprop=\"alternativeHeadline\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"The_CDC_said_this_week_that_the_new_B117_strain_may_become_the_most_dominant_form_of_the_virus_in_the_US_by_March\"><\/span>\n  The CDC said this week that the new B.1.1.7 strain may become the most dominant form of the virus in the U.S. by March<br \/>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"column column--full article__content\">\n<div id=\"js-article__body\" class=\"article__body article-wrap at16-col16 barrons-article-wrap\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-sbid=\"WP-MKTW-0000132240\">\n<div class=\"barrons-article-ad-wrapper\">\n<div data-track=\"barrons-article-ad-wrap\" class=\"barrons-article-ad sticky_item\">\n<div class=\"barrons-main-article-ad-target sticky_target body_ad\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>       The United Kingdom\u2019s use of genomic sequencing to identify a more infectious strain of SARS-CoV-2 has largely served as a wake-up call for inadequate use of the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p> Up until mid-December, the U.S. had sequenced about 0.3% of its COVID-19 samples, a percentage that is significantly lower than other developed countries despite the fact that it has one-fourth of the world\u2019s cases.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"paywall\">\n       In comparison, the U.K. is sequencing about 10% of its samples, and Australia aims to real-time sequence all of the relatively limited number of positive COVID-19 tests there.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe U.S. has been a no-show for sequencing if you look at the world stage,\u201d said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. \u201cSequencing gives us many different things. It tells us how the virus is moving from place to place. It tells us how fast it\u2019s changing. We can say it was here on this day, and it was there another day. It can tell a super-spreader.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>See also:<\/strong> Here\u2019s what we know so far about the new strain of COVID-19<\/p>\n<p>Growing concern about \u201chyper-transmissable\u201d new strains of SARS-COV-2 has raised more awareness about the nation\u2019s lack of federal funding and development of the kind of genomic surveillance that helped the U.K. identify the B.1.1.7 strain and South Africa pinpoint the B. 1.351 strain in December.\u00a0 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday it\u2019s likely that B.1.1.7 will become the most dominant form of the virus in the U.S. by March. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe simply do not have the kind of robust surveillance capabilities that we need to track outbreaks and mutations,\u201d President-elect Joe Biden said Thursday, when he called for a dramatic boost in genomic sequencing and surveillance as part of his proposed $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>While a good chunk of federal pandemic dollars have gone so far toward im<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">media<\/a>te needs like testing, contact tracing, and helping drugmakers scale up their vaccine manufacturing capabilities, experts are now pushing the U.S. to build a stronger genomic surveillance system that can help public-health departments identify new strains while also better addressing regional or community outbreaks.<\/p>\n<p>All viruses evolve, and SARS-CoV-2 is thought to develop one to two variants a month, though it mutates much more slowly than the flu virus. Back in mid-2020, researchers began talking about the 614G mutation, which is now considered the dominant form of the virus worldwide. Now, concern has shifted to the B.1.1.7 and B. 1.351 strains, which are both thought to be more infectious.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The B.1.1.7 strain from the U.K. has been detected in at least 76 people in 12 states, as of Jan. 13, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/transmission\/variant-cases.html\" class=\"icon none\">according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.<\/a> (The B. 1.351 strain from South Africa has not been identified in the U.S. at this time.)<\/p>\n<div id=\"cx-membership-tile\"><\/div>\n<p>In the U.S., where rates of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to soar, there has been less emphasis on population-level public health initiatives when testing and care remain in such high demand.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:<\/strong> Biden plans to distribute COVID-19 vaccine doses immediately<\/p>\n<p>Intermountain Healthcare, a hospital system based in Salt Lake City, sent off all positive COVID-19 tests for sequencing in the early days of the pandemic. But when cases began to rise, and workload increased, the process began too disruptive and time-consuming, and it was stopped, said Dr. Bert Lopansri, chief of Intermountain\u2019s Division of Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith increasing treatment options, vaccine rollout and emergence of novel variants, scaling up sequencing is critical going forward,\u201d he said in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If the U.S. sequenced at least 5% of positive COVID-19 tests, then it would be able to detect emerging strains or variants when they make up less than 1% of total positive cases, according to a model developed by the sequencing company Illumina Inc.<br \/>\n        ILMN,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/203509482\/composite\" class=\"positive\">+1.43%<\/bg-quote><span>.<\/span><br \/>\n       (Their model is set to be published this weekend as a preprint, a type of preliminary medical study.)<\/p>\n<p>This would cost less than $500 million in 2021, according to Dr. Phil Febbo, the company\u2019s chief medical officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Experts say that putting money behind a national genomic sequencing surveillance network cannot only help identify new variants in the future, it could aid overworked public-health departments with giving priority to who should get tested, contact traced, and isolated. <\/p>\n<p>It could also be used to inform vaccine makers if there is \u201ca vaccine escape strain,\u201d a strain of the virus that could render currently available vaccines less effective or ineffective. <\/p>\n<p>(A study conducted in a lab in mice by BioNTech SE<br \/>\n        BNTX,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/214419716\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-4.02%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       and Pfizer Inc.<br \/>\n        PFE,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/202877789\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-0.14%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       showed that their vaccine is still effective against the new strains, according to the <a rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.biorxiv.org\/content\/10.1101\/2021.01.07.425740v1\" class=\"icon none\">Jan. 7 preprint<\/a>. Moderna Inc.<br \/>\n        MRNA,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/205619834\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-0.05%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       has also said it\u2019s confident its MRNA vaccine will work against the U.K. strain)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen they see a small cluster of a new variant come into a community, they can react quickly,\u201d Febbo said, \u201cand they can raise awareness to those who are infected and make sure that they do their best efforts to contain that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>See also:<\/strong> FDA identifies 3 COVID-19 tests that may be impacted by new variant<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this month, Illumina announced plans with a privately held testing company called Helix OpCo to develop a CDC-backed national sequencing surveillance system. Helix looks for samples from positive COVID-19 tests with the \u201cS gene dropout\u201d for Illumina to sequence. So far, they\u2019ve ID\u2019ed at least 51 cases of B.1.1.7. in the U.S.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Incorporating genomic sequencing into national surveillance isn\u2019t the only way to modernize the way the U.S. can track and take action against the virus. Beyond testing, contact tracing, and isolating, this could include genomic sequencing, monitoring wastewater, gathering mobility data, and using digital sensors, according to Topol.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we get vaccines out there at full tilt, we\u2019re going to start seeing containment of the virus,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then there\u2019s going to be places that are like whack-a-mole, where the virus tends to crop up again. If you\u2019re sequencing, doing wastewater, digital, mobility, you basically have a real time dashboard in the country, and you see that, \u2018Oh, wow, Kalamazoo is lighting up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Illumina shares have gained 18% in the last 12 months, while the SPDR S&amp;P Biotech ETF<br \/>\n        XBI,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/205950134\/composite\" class=\"negative\">-1.11%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       has gained 59% and the S&amp;P 500<br \/>\n        SPX,<br \/>\n        <bg-quote field=\"percentchange\" format=\"0,000.00%\" channel=\"\/zigman2\/quotes\/210599714\/realtime\" class=\"negative\">-0.72%<\/bg-quote><br \/>\n       has gained 15%. <\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"byline article__byline\">\n<p>      <span>By<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"author  hasMenu\" data-scrim='{\"type\":\"author\",\"header\":\"Jaimy Lee\",\"subhead\":\"The Wall Street Journal\",\"list\":[]}' itemscope itemprop=\"author\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\">\n<h4 itemprop=\"name\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Jaimy_Lee\"><\/span>Jaimy Lee<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/news\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.marketwatch.com\/news\/story.asp?guid=%7B21005575-02D4-D4B5-4572-D20490C5DC35%7D&#038;siteid=rss&#038;rss=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;#: Fear of new virus variant pushes U.S. toward more genomic sequencing&#8221; The CDC said this week that the new B.1.1.7 strain may become the most dominant form of the virus in the U.S. by March The United Kingdom\u2019s use of genomic sequencing to identify a more infectious strain of SARS-CoV-2 has largely served as&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":156723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}