Following an increase of Covid-19 cases in the United Kingdom, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb urged for “urgent research” into a mutation of the delta variant known as delta plus.

“We need urgent research to figure out if this delta plus is more transmissible, has partial immune evasion,” the former commissioner said in a tweet. 

“There’s no clear indication that it’s considerably more transmissible, but we should work to more quickly characterize these and other new variants. We have the tools.”

UK reported its biggest one-day Covid case increase in 3 months just as the new delta variant AY.4 with the S:Y145H mutation in the spike reaches 8% of UK sequenced cases. We need urgent research to figure out if this delta plus is more transmissible, has partial immune evasion?

— Scott Gottlieb, MD (@ScottGottliebMD) October 17, 2021

Gottlieb’s remarks came as the United Kingdom reported the largest daily increase in new cases since mid-July, when Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered the lifting of most Covid-related restrictions on “Freedom Day.”

According to Bloomberg’s coronavirus tracker, weekly mortality from the virus have reached 800 for each of the last six weeks, far outnumbering deaths in other major Western European countries. To far, the United Kingdom has recorded about 140,000 Covid-related fatalities.

The delta plus strain carries the K417N mutation, which has sparked worry because it is also carried by the beta variant, which has been linked to an increased risk of reinfection.

In late June, researchers in the United Kingdom stated that there is no evidence to imply that the new mutation is more concerning. Earlier this month, a German paper found that while both Delta and delta plus infect lung cells more efficiently than the original coronavirus strain, delta plus does not appear to be considerably more harmful than delta.   

Gottlieb, who is a member of Pfizer’s board of directors, was the FDA’s director from 2017 to 2019. He’s been promoting his new book, “Uncontrolled Spread: Why Covid-19 Crushed Us and How We Can Defeat the Next Pandemic.”

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