Wild type, alpha, beta, delta, omicron. What's Next?
The White House, with a group of outside experts, developed a National Covid-19 Preparedness Plan which can serve as a roadmap going forward. It has 4 sections and I thought it might be a good time to look at section 2 - "To Prepare For New Variants." The Omicron BA.2 variant is increasing in the US, with the percent of infections doubling every week in our region. The percent of the infections was 12.4% in the last report for our region on Feb 26. But as in other countries, the total number of infections are not increasing as the BA-2 variant increases, which is good news. In order to stay ahead of new variants going forward, the plan will "monitor variants, adapt our tools swiftly to combat a new variant, and deploy emergency resources to help communities."
The administration has enhanced the collection and analysis of data, expanding electronic case reporting to all 50 states and DC. The US has also established a world-class sequencing operation - studying 90,000 virus isolates/week. When a new isolate is discovered, there is now a network of researchers to analyze transmission, severity, and immune escape from vaccines, tests, and drugs. As part of this plan the government can also use new FDA processes to expedite the regulatory review of the variant while maintaining strict longstanding practices to ensure the efficacy and safety of the products.
Early in the pandemic the US relied on variant information from other countries who had already ramped up genetic sequencing of emerging variants in their country. We relied heavily on the information from the UK and S. Africa. Genomic sequencing, in which the RNA structure of the virus in each virus sample, is a laborious process and since the coronaviruses are mutating a little faster than expected, these systems are now able to detect as little as 0.1% of a new variant in patient samples. As part of this plan a permanent section was established at HHS/NIH to ensure "accelerated development, production, and delivery of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments." This information was taken from <https://www.whitehouse.gov/covidplan/>