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December 21, 2020, 7:09 am
New York governor Andrew Cuomo is frustrated with how the United States is — or isn’t — addressing the new strain of coronavirus spreading throughout the United Kingdom, and he’s making sure everyone knows.
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Parts of the UK are currently back on strict Tier 4 lockdown as a mutated version of coronavirus has begun spreading rapidly throughout London. COVID-19 already had a high infection rate, but this new version is thought to be up to 70% more infectious. On the upside, there’s currently no proof that it will impact individuals with worse symptoms than what we’ve seen so far this year — of course, those can already get pretty bad.
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Most non-Americans traveling from Europe are already banned from visiting the US thanks to the virus, with exceptions made in some instances relating to work or school. The restrictions were expected to be lifted by President Trump before the end of the year.
But in light of the new developments, Cuomo thinks we should shut down travel from the UK entirely.
“120 countries require a test. We don’t. Other European countries have done a ban. We haven’t,” he said. “And today that variant is getting on a plane and landing at JFK. How many times in life do you have to make the same mistake before you learn?”
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The list of countries banning travel from the UK is still growing, but the number currently sits at over 30, including France, Germany, Russia, and Canada.
But the US currently has no plans to join that group.
Admiral Brett Giroir, a member of Trump’s COVID-19 task force, told ABC News that he doesn’t “think there should be any reason for alarm right now.”
“I read the British medical journals this morning, it’s up 20% of cases in one county, aside from that it is very low and we don’t know that it is more dangerous,” he said.
But a surge of “merely” 20% in the United States — where the virus has continued to spread wildly throughout the country — could be devastating, as ICUs in some cities have already reached capacity again during the holidays.
On the bright side, scientists have said there’s no reason to believe that the vaccines currently approved for COVID-19 wouldn’t also protect people from this new strain of coronavirus. The key is going be getting it out to people before the new mutation makes it to the US and spreads throughout the population alongside the current coronavirus.
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As Cuomo said, “All it takes is one person.”
*First Published: December 21, 2020, 7:09 am
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