HealthDay Reports: Experts Cast Doubt on Notion That New Strain of Coronavirus Is More Infectious
Several experts are speaking out against a recent study that suggested a new, mutated strain of the coronavirus is more infectious than the strain from earlier in the pandemic.
Experts Cast Doubt on Notion That New Strain of Coronavirus Is More Infectious
THURSDAY, May 7, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- A new study suggesting that the new coronavirus has mutated to become even more infectious should be viewed with skepticism, multiple experts said Wednesday.
Earlier this week, researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory concluded that the new strain of the coronavirus started spreading in Europe in early February and then expanded to other parts of the world, becoming the dominant strain of the virus in the United States and Canada by the end of March, CNBC reported.
The team also concluded that the strain was more easily transmitted between people.
The study was posted Thursday on the website BioRxiv, and has not been peer-reviewed.
The research "doesn't prove that this new strain is in fact more infectious," Gottlieb said Wednesday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."
"The analysis could be confounded by the fact that this just became the dominant strain in Europe because it got into Europe early and then got into the United States from Europe," former U.S. Food and Drug Administration head Dr. Scott Gottlieb explained. "It really doesn't prove anything."