New COVID-19 Strain Appears in California, Newsom Says

The new, more infectious strain of COVID-19 is now in California.

That's according to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who unveiled the news in a Wednesday afternoon Facebook Live interview he conducted with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"An hour or so ago we were informed that this new variant, this new strain that we've identified obviously from the United Kingdom, and other parts of the globe and found in Colorado, has been identified here in the state of California, in Southern California," Newsom said.

NPR reported that when scientists first detected this new strain — B.1.1.7 — in late September, it rapidly took over parts of England and pushed out other forms of the virus, becoming the dominant one.

This rapid rise suggests this strain is more transmissible than other forms of the virus, health experts said.

"I'm not surprised you have a case, and likely more cases in California" of this new variant, Fauci told Newsom. "Californians shouldn't think this is something odd. This is something that's expected."

Newsom asked Fauci what about the strain is different.

Fauci said "the transmissibility of this mutant is more efficient than the transmissibility of the standard virus we've been dealing with up to now."

But he emphasized that there is "no indication at all" that this strain is more virulent, meaning, Fauci said, it is not stronger or more likely to kill. And the immunity from previously contracting COVID-19 has, so far, protected against this new strain.

Newsom asked Fauci: "Any new mutation, that just scares the average person. How do you calm the nerves, for those that have nerves about this issue?"

Fauci answered that RNA viruses "make a living" out of mutating. They "love" to mutate. The overwhelming majority of mutations "are irrelevant," Fauci said. All this mutation does, he said, is make it "better" at transmission from one person to another.

— Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez (@FitztheReporter)