.@NYCHealthCommr and I held a technical briefing for the media this morning about #COVID19 #variants in #NYC. Important summary points in this thread 1/12
People are increasingly worried whether they should do something different. This is very reasonable, b/c we’ve all seen stories worrying abt #variants & we may someday need to change what we do. Right now, the answer is: there’s nothing different we should be doing 2/12
Wear a well-fitting mask (even 2), maintain distance, wash your hands, get tested. When your turn comes up, get vaccinated: it’s the best way to protect yourself against being hospitalized or dying from #COVID19 & it’s the path to getting back to the things we love doing 3/12
In #NYC, we’re testing for variants more than other big cities in US. We have capacity to sequence >2000/wk at city-supported labs & quadrupling capacity this month. That also does not count all the academic labs working to increase sequencing as well 4/12
In fact, we’re the only city or state reporting weekly estimates of how common these variants are in our jurisdiction. See latest report here: www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/dow… 5/12
We’re working with our NYC partners to study these variants. We hope & wish together that we don't find anything too alarming. But we’ll keep reporting what we know, what we don’t know, what we’re doing about it, & what you should do about it, even if it’s difficult. 6/12
All viruses mutate & create variants. Just because #coronavirus mutates does not automatically mean it’s more dangerous. It just means it’s behaving like a virus. Some new variants are just that: a little different than the regular, aka wild-type or “COVD Classic” 7/12
Some variants must be handled more carefully. We divide these into: variants of interest & variants of concern. And you all know that when officials use the word ‘concern,’ it usually is a mild way of saying, ‘This might or might not be a big problem!’ 8/12
Here’s an excellent explainer about variants of interest vs. variants of concern:
https://twitter.com/K_G_Andersen/status/1365461953775235073?s=209/12
If we find a "variant of interest" & that variant is increasing in frequency, we need to analyze data and do studies to determine if it’s something we should be concerned about. That is, we have to decide: Is this a “variant of concern”? 10/12
Has it changed so much that our usual tests can't diagnose it OR it evades our antibodies & immune defenses OR it causes more severe disease & death OR it’s more contagious. 11/12
For the NY variant of interest (B1526), we have @nychealthy epidemiologists reviewing lab, medical, & contact tracing records to determine whether B1526 is, in fact, a variant of concern. We will report preliminary findings next week & continue to monitor latest research 12/12
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