Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned Thursday that research shows coronavirus may be mutating to spread much faster.
Fauci, in an interview with JAMA, he revealed that the research was still in early stages, but top virologists had noted a single mutation in one of the virus’s amino acids.
“There is a little dispute about it, but I think the data is showing that there is a single mutation that actually makes the virus be able to replicate better,” Fauci said. “It just seems that the virus replicates better and may be more transmissible.”
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, noted that COVID-19 is already spreading quite fast in the U.S. and that the country is obviously “not going in the right direction.”
The U.S. set a record for new confirmed coronavirus cases Wednesday, reporting more than 50,000 new infections. In an interview with the BBC that aired Thursday, Fauci said the increase is “way beyond the worst spikes that we’ve seen.”
While the New York area was heavily impacted in March and April, approximately 50% of infections in the past week have been identified in four states: Arizona, California, Florida and Texas. Together, those states make up about 30% of the country’s population.
More than 128,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins. That death toll is more than double that of the second-worst nation, Brazil.
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