CNN: Needs 85 days to detect a virus genome in U.S.

CNN: Needs 85 days to detect a virus genome in U.S.. CNN criticizes U.S. anti-epidemic efficiency: it takes 85 days to detect a virus genome.

How regrettable is the efficiency of the United States’ fight against the epidemic? The CNN website recently issued an angry criticism that the United States takes an average of 85 days to detect a virus genome, ranking only 61st in the world.

Professor Peter Hotez, a virologist at Baylor College of Medicine, introduced that viral gene sequencing is the key to tracking the development of new mutant strains of the virus. Since the UK and South Africa have reported mutations of the virus strain, it is necessary to detect it as early as possible to take appropriate measures to control it.

The United Kingdom is one of the fastest-testing countries. It takes 24 days to collect a virus sample, analyze and upload the gene sequence for publication. However, it takes 85 days for the United States, which is not as fast as Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Suriname and other economically underdeveloped countries, ranking 61st in the world. Hotez said that within 85 days, a variant strain is enough to grow from rare to large-scale, and even half of the infected people in a group may be infected by this virus.

While many people lined up to wait for the vaccine, they wereted a lot of doses because of the inefficient vaccine distribution. The UK has published 150,000 sequencing results, and the United States has released 70,000 sequencing results, ranking second. However, the number of confirmed diagnoses in the United States reached 22 million, and only 2.8 viral genetic tests were performed for every 1,000 patients, ranking 35th in the world. At the end of 2020, the U.S. can sequence approximately 3,000 copies per week. This year, the CDC plans to do more than 6,500 copies per week.

While the United States has a serious shortage of viral genome tests, it is also facing the problem of insufficient numbers and uneven distribution of new coronavirus vaccines. According to a data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the US government has distributed more than 22 million doses of vaccine to hospitals and pharmacies, but only 6.7 million people received the first dose.

During the epidemic, vaccination was not a simple matter. Vaccination and monitoring require a lot of time for operators and vaccinators. No medical institution can keep a large number of employees out of work at the same time; medical workers and residents of long-term care institutions are the first priority for vaccination, but some of them People do not want to be vaccinated. At the same time, some medical personnel who are not employed by the hospital or the health system cannot get the vaccine.

At present, the U.S. federal government urges states to provide vaccines to the elderly and high-risk groups, but some areas still focus on vaccinations on front-line anti-epidemic personnel and can only ration them. Therefore, while countless people are eagerly waiting for vaccination, there are still many vaccines that have not been used in cold storage. For example, in New York, there was a disagreement. Governor Andrew Cuomo hoped that medical staff would be vaccinated as soon as possible, but New York Mayor Bill de Blasio pushed for more people to be vaccinated. After that, New York City will vaccinate teachers and people over 75 years old who are not on the front line.

There was also an incident of discarding vaccines last week. Some appointments at the Family Health Center in Harlem, New York did not come to vaccinate, but the vaccine has been taken out of the cold storage and will expire in 6 hours. Therefore, the nurses of this center traveled throughout the community looking for people who could be vaccinated. According to the requirements of state law, the vaccine cannot be vaccinated to people outside the key population, otherwise it will face a fine of up to 1 million U.S. dollars and license cancellation. Therefore, these nurses went to pharmacies, fire stations, residential areas, looking for people who met the vaccination standards, and finally wasted 3 to 4 doses.

Six hospitals in Oregon and southwestern Washington state told CNN that a large amount of Pfizer’s COVID-19 pneumonia vaccine has been thrown away. The person in charge of the agency said that each bottle of Pfizer vaccine can be allocated to 5 people for vaccination, but there are actually 6-7 people’s doses, and these excess doses cannot be used clinically. If it can be used, then these six hospitals can also provide vaccination for at least 700 people.

As a priority group, residents and staff of long-term care institutions are also slow in vaccination. As of last Friday, a total of 4 million doses of vaccine have been allocated to long-term care facilities, but fewer than 700,000 people have been vaccinated. The report pointed out that the number of residents who need to be vaccinated is 20%-30% lower than expected, and the coverage rate of staff is not up to standard. Walgreens, the chain pharmacy in charge of vaccine distribution, said that if the vaccine is not used, it will be reassigned to the next clinic. If the vaccine is about to expire, members of Walgreens will be vaccinated.

Currently, West Virginia in the United States is one of the states with the highest per capita vaccination dose. The state opened a week in advance to vaccinate long-term care facilities. At the same time, the state did not cooperate with chain pharmacies to distribute vaccines, but with all pharmacies. The governor of the state, Jim Justice, said that if the vaccination plan recommended by the federal government is followed, it will definitely limit the ability to quickly distribute the vaccine.

At present, West Virginia has expanded the scope of priority vaccination groups, and people over 80 years of age can get vaccination outside of medical personnel and long-term care institutions.

(sourcesohu, reference only)

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