The DHS confiscated over 11 million counterfeit 3M N95 masks and extra assaults will comply with

U.S. Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) December 2020 image shows members of El Paso Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers seizing counterfeit N95 surgical masks from a cargo facility in El Paso Port, El Paso, Texas, work.

ICE via AP

The Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday that it had confiscated more than 11 million counterfeit 3M N95 respirators intended for frontline health workers.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a press conference that the seizures have been made in the past few weeks, including hundreds of thousands of masks discovered during raids on a warehouse on the east coast on Wednesday.

Homeland Security agents have been investigating cases in the past two weeks and have issued search warrants in five states, Mayorkas said. More raids, he said, are expected in the next few weeks.

The raids were part of Operation Stolen Promise, launched in April by Homeland Security and government and private sector partners to investigate Covid-19-related fraud.

“We are of course at a vulnerable time when the pandemic is costing so many lives and causing so much damage,” Mayorkas said. “And we will continue to aggressively pursue the fact that individuals, criminals, take advantage of our weak points for a quick buck.”

Mayorkas noted that the first evidence of the investigation came from 3M, who reported alleged counterfeit masks being purchased for health care workers and first responders.

“This collaboration has helped prevent millions of counterfeit respirators from getting to the frontlines,” said Kevin Rhodes, 3M’s deputy general counsel, in a statement. “We are committed to fighting the pandemic from all angles – making PPE, preventing counterfeiting, and making sure N95s get where they are most needed.”

DHS officials declined to determine where the raids took place, saying they had no comment on an ongoing investigation. Criminal charges are pending, they said. The DHS said it reported about 6,000 alleged victims of the fraud in at least 12 states, including hospitals, medical facilities and others, who may have bought medical masks from a company Mayorkas called “criminal”.

Ford invests $ 1 billion in a German electrical car plant

GEORGES GOBET | AFP | Getty Images

Ford is investing $ 1 billion in an electric vehicle production facility in Cologne. The European branch of the automotive giant is committed to going all-in for electric vehicles in the coming years.

In the plans announced on Wednesday morning, Ford said that its entire range of passenger cars in Europe would be “emission-free, fully electric or plug-in hybrid” by mid-2026 and an “all-electric” offering by 2030.

By investing in Cologne, the company is updating an existing assembly plant and converting it into a facility that focuses on the production of electric vehicles.

“Today’s announcement to rebuild our plant in Cologne, where we have been operating in Germany for 90 years, is one of the most significant that Ford has made in over a generation,” said Stuart Rowley, President of Ford of Europe in a statement .

“It underscores our commitment to Europe and a modern future, with electric vehicles at the heart of our growth strategy,” added Rowley.

The company also wants its commercial vehicle segment in Europe to be emission-free, plug-in hybrid or fully electric by 2024.

A “transformative” decade

With governments around the world announcing plans to move away from diesel and gasoline vehicles, Ford, along with several other major automakers, is looking to expand its electric offering and challenge companies like Elon Musk’s Tesla.

Earlier this week, Jaguar Land Rover announced that its Jaguar brand will be fully electric by 2025. The company, which belongs to Tata Motors, also said its Land Rover segment will introduce six “all-electric variants” over the next 5 years.

South Korean automaker Kia will launch its first dedicated electric vehicle this year. The German Volkswagen Group is investing around 35 billion euros in battery-electric vehicles and aims to bring around 70 fully electric models onto the market by 2030.

Last month, the CEO of Daimler told CNBC that the automotive industry was “in the midst of a change”.

“In addition to the things that we know well – to be honest, building the most coveted cars in the world – there are two technological trends on which we are doubling down: electrification and digitization,” Ola Källenius told CNBC’s Annette Weisbach.

The Stuttgart-based company has “invested billions in these new technologies,” he added, explaining that they would “drive our path to carbon-free driving.” This decade, he continued, was “transformative”.

Malia Obama joins the writing staff for Donald Glover’s Amazon venture

Malia ObamaThe new job makes all the other 22-year-olds feel like a total slacker.

Barack and Michelle Obama‘s eldest daughter has joined the writer’s room on a possible series that Donald Glover produced under his new contract for Amazon Studios, as the story quoted by The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday February 17th, in which sources were quoted. Variety and Deadline also confirmed the news, citing their own sources.

The series comes from the author Janine Naberswho previously worked on HBO’s Watchmen and is supposed to focus on a Beyoncé– a public figure of the THR type who also reported that Malia had been hired to work on the project.

This is the first out of college appearance for the former first daughter, who will graduate from Harvard University as part of the 2021 class.

Malia has been interested in following a Hollywood path for some time. According to THR, Malia received an internship at The Weinstein Company in 2017 after previously working at HBO’s Comedy Girls and as a production assistant at CBS. Halle Berry Drama extant.

No financial system may be profitable with out realizing the potential of girls

Indra Nooyi speaks on stage during the 2020 Women’s Watermark Conference at the San Jose Convention Center on February 12, 2020 in San Jose, California.

Marla Aufmuth | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

When economies enter a new phase of growth, the next 20 years will be “the decades of women,” says former PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi.

The Indian-American businesswoman said the coming years will mark a turning point for women as society tries to recover from the pandemic while addressing demographic challenges. She also called on companies and countries to stand behind the change.

“I don’t think there is an economy in the world that can thrive without realizing the incredible potential of women in the future. I just don’t think that is possible,” said Nooyi, an integral part of the world ranking of powerful women .

“I also think that almost every economy in the world needs women in order to have children because we need the replacement rate for the world,” she continued. “We should sit down and say, ‘You need us.’ They need us for the economy, they need children, and we’ve put in the unpaid work so far. So I look to the next few decades and say ‘it’s our time’. “

They need us for the economy, they need us to have children … So I look to the next couple of decades and say, “It’s our time.”

Indra Nooyi

Ex-CEO, PepsiCo

Nooyi spoke at a virtual event hosted by Procter & Gamble and the United Nations Women, titled #WeSeeEqual.

Closing the gender gap

In a report last year, the United Nations predicted that the coronavirus pandemic will affect women more than men, further exacerbating existing gender gaps.

However, Nooyi, who was widely lauded for her transformation of PepsiCo, including its diversity and inclusion agenda, said there is an opportunity for companies and countries to fill the void by focusing on three key areas.

“First, every business and government should insist on paid leave,” she said, highlighting paid maternity, paternity and family leave as critical.

“Second, thank God for Covid, now we have flexibility,” she continued, noting that flexible work can be a huge opportunity for women to participate. Not only does that mean moving the office home, it also means enabling hybrid work models and flextime so employees can “find a new equation” that works for them, she said.

“The third most important is childcare facilities,” she said.

These three elements need to work together to bring about change, Nooyi said. But she is hopeful: “I would say it will be a different world; there will be a lot more equality than we saw before.”

Moniece Slaughter says she has completed speaking about Dr. Talking to Dre who’s abusive after allegedly threatening her

Moniece Slaughter and Dr. Dre

Roommate, earlier this week, former Love & Hip Hop star Moniece Slaughter sparked heated controversy when she claimed Dr. Dre threatened to talk about his alleged relationship with Apryl Jones. Well, quickly forward to the present, and Moniece is now saying she’s done talking about Dr. Dre and goes on to explain that this is because the threats have increased.

Moniece Slaughter shared a long post on Instagram in which she confirmed that the reason for her decision to choose Dr. No longer discussing Dre’s abusive behavior is that he allegedly threatened her life, the life of her son, and the life of her family members. She even wrote that she was warned to leave Los Angeles before things escalated further.

As we previously reported, Moniece spilled tea on an Instagram live claiming Dre was a “bully”. You will recall that Dre has had domestic violence allegations against him for decades, most recently from Moniece, who claims he made threatening phone calls to her.

“You know what,” Moniece said in one of the clips, “I didn’t want to believe Dre was a brawler, but after the couple of phone calls I literally just had, he’s a bully. For sure. In any case. “

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J&J doesn’t have a big stock of cans, says the Biden official

Illustration of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine

Given Ruvic | Reuters

Johnson & Johnson will not hold a “large inventory” of its Covid-19 vaccine prior to regulatory approval expected this month, President Joe Biden’s Covid tsar said Wednesday.

Jeff Zients said the government has learned in recent weeks that J&J will only manufacture “a few million” doses if its single vaccine is likely to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

Federal and state health officials expected vaccine supplies to increase rapidly once the J&J emergency vaccine was approved. The FDA scheduled a meeting of its Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products on February 26th to discuss the vaccine. The US could approve the vaccine the next day.

J&J currently has a contract with the U.S. government to deliver 100 million doses of its vaccine by the end of June, said Zients, the president’s Covid-19 response coordinator. Assuming the vaccine is approved, the Biden government will work with J&J to increase supply as soon as possible. US officials hope many of these cans will be available in the first few months of their introduction.

“We are doing everything we can to work with the company to expedite the delivery schedule,” Zients told reporters during a White House press conference about the pandemic.

The news comes as the Biden government works to increase the supply of cans after states complained that demand for the shots was quickly exceeding supply. Around 39.7 million of roughly 331 million Americans have received at least their first dose of Pfizer’s or Moderna’s two-dose vaccines, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 15 million of those people have already got their second shot.

Biden announced Thursday that the US has received 100 million more doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine and 100 million more of the Moderna vaccine, bringing the total US supply to 600 million doses. Since the vaccines require two doses, a total of 600 million doses would be enough to vaccinate 300 million Americans.

On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced that the Biden administration is increasing the number of Covid-19 vaccine doses sent weekly to states, shipping 13.5 million doses this week, and increasing the number of doses retailed at pharmacies doubled.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that most Americans will have access to a Covid-19 vaccine by mid to late May or early June, a slight delay compared to previous predictions made in late March and April.

The White House chief medical officer said the federal government expects J&J to “significantly increase” starting doses.

“I’m a little disappointed that the number of doses we’re getting early from J&J is relatively small, but as we get further into spring there will be more and more,” said Fauci.

In the meantime, Pfizer and Moderna are looking into whether their vaccines can prevent transmission of the virus, he said on Wednesday, adding that early studies point in a “favorable direction”.

Prioritizing instructor vaccinations shall be difficult till the scarcity is corrected, the Biden official says

Prioritizing teachers in the distribution of Covid vaccines will continue to be a challenge until more doses become available, Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to the White House’s Covid-19 response team, said Wednesday.

President Joe Biden has made reopening the country’s schools for personal teaching a top priority.

On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published new guidelines that teachers shouldn’t be vaccinated to safely reopen schools, but that states should give teachers priority access to Covid vaccines.

Slavitt said governors had “tough decisions” to make to juggle vaccine distribution to groups like seniors, nursing home workers and teachers.

“We are trying to support them with science as much as possible, but until the shortage is fixed we will still have these challenges,” Slavitt told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith”.

The question of whether teachers should be vaccinated before returning to class has been a focus in the debate on reopening in-person teaching.

Vice President Kamala Harris said on the Today Show Wednesday morning, “Teachers should be priority.”

During a briefing on Wednesday, White House senior Covid-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Biden and Harris believe that frontline teachers and other frontline staff should be on the front lines to get vaccines. However, both agree with the CDC that vaccinating teachers “is not a requirement for schools to reopen.”

The CDC guidelines also recommend that schools adapt their reopening plans to the severity of the outbreak in their communities. The agency also recommends schools maintain “essential elements” for personal learning, including wearing masks, physical distancing and monitoring of spread in the area.

“If that were easy, it would be done,” Slavitt told CNBC. “We’re focused on how we get kids and teachers back to school – not if we should, but how. And that’s the CDC plan, in my opinion.”

Biden’s nudge from the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a “warning”.

The Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman will take part in a meeting with the Russian President Vladimir Putin in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 14, 2019.

Alexei Nikolsky | Sputnik | Kremlin via Reuters

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – President Joe Biden’s press secretary delivered a remarkable message this week to the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Jen Psaki told a press conference in diplomatic language that relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia – especially with the Crown Prince of the kingdom – are being downgraded.

“With regard to Saudi Arabia, I would say that we made it clear from the start that we will recalibrate our relationship with Saudi Arabia,” said Psaki from the White House on Tuesday.

When asked if Biden would speak to the Crown Prince, she replied, “Part of it comes from the juxtaposition. The President’s colleague is King Salman, and I expect he would in due course.” have a conversation with him. I don’t have a timeline for this. “

The quotes immediately caught the attention of regional analysts and foreign policy experts, as well as probably executives in the Gulf as a blatant nudge of the 35-year-old heir to the monarchy in Saudi Arabia and arguably the most powerful man in the region.

“Well, I think what Jen said, I know the president would get in touch with his counterpart and that his counterpart is the king,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters on Wednesday.

Price added that Foreign Minister Antony Blinken will work in a similar manner with his counterpart, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud.

“President Biden has said that we will review the entire relationship to make sure it serves interests and is respectable and respects the values ​​we bring to this partnership,” Price said.

“We know, of course, that Saudi Arabia is an important partner on many different fronts. Regional security is just one of them,” he added.

“It’s brave and it will hurt”

“The fall against MBS is a warning to Saudi Arabia,” wrote Torbjorn Soltvedt, MENA chief analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, in an email on Wednesday in which he referred to the crown prince with his initials. “It is seen as a disapproval of the leadership of MBS, which has been characterized by unpredictable decisions and a much less advisory approach than in the past.”

And the government’s apparent intent to get the Crown Prince out of the way represents a dramatic departure from Trump’s White House, which made Saudi Arabia the former president’s first overseas visit, despite major arms deals with the kingdom despite opposition from Congress and failed to criticize the kingdom for its human rights violations.

This shouldn’t come as a big surprise, as Biden early promised a tougher line for the oil-rich Islamic monarchy. During a major debate in early 2020, Biden pledged to make Saudi Arabia “the pariah they are”.

“This is not a surprising move, but it is brave and will hurt,” Michael Stephens, an analyst at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told CNBC. “There is no doubt that Psaki’s comments were directed at the Crown Prince, even though he is in every way the man in charge of the kingdom.”

A number of scandals and crises that have emerged from the kingdom since the Crown Prince came to power have been condemned not only by Democrats but also by Republicans.

A former Obama administration official said anonymously for professional reasons: “The Saudis in Washington are in the worst position they have ever been. They were only covered up by Trump’s White House.”

The Saudi government did not respond to CNBC requests for comment.

Can Biden really get MBS out of the way?

Biden has already paused on a major arms sale to the Kingdom and other Gulf allies signed under the Trump administration, and has ordered an end to U.S. support for the Saudi Arabia-led war in Yemen that created that has what the UN calls the world’s worst man-made humanitarian crisis.

And the kingdom has been internationally condemned because the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed by state agents in 2018. The US secret service linked the death with the Crown Prince, which Riyadh emphatically denies.

“With the ongoing war in Yemen, crackdown on prominent members of the country’s political and business elite in 2017, the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 and the oil price war last year, there is no shortage of raw materials for the Biden government Kick off, “wrote Soltvedt.

But how realistic is the Biden team’s goal of bypassing the Crown Prince – who is also the Secretary of Defense, who is next to the throne and who made most of the kingdom’s most important decisions?

According to Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst near the kingdom’s royal court, this is not at all realistic.

“You can’t do anything if you don’t deal with MBS,” Shihabi was quoted as saying when telling Politico. “The king works, but he’s very old. He’s the chairman of the board. He’s not involved in day-to-day matters. After all, you’ll want to speak to MBS directly.”

King Salman, the ruling monarch since 2015, is now 85 years old.

President Donald Trump holds a chart of sales of military hardware as he greets Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, USA on March 20, 2018.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

Verisk’s Soltvedt agrees. “King Salman is the head of state and ultimately controls the levers of power. But it is MBS that has direct control over the kingdom’s major portfolios and institutions,” he wrote. “A change in Washington’s approach to dealing with the Saudi leadership will not change that.”

The Biden administration is expected to give the Gulf States a lower priority than its predecessor, but they remain America’s preeminent arms customers and regional counter-terrorism partners, as well as oil suppliers – albeit less from year to year.

While the Biden team signals a postponement, many foreign policy experts believe it will not be a break in relations.

“I think the most important thing is that US policy towards Saudi Arabia has been relatively consistent over the years, regardless of which party was in power,” said Tarek Fadlallah, CEO for the Middle East at Nomura.

“There will be a slightly different tone between this White House and the last White House,” said Fadlallah. “But I don’t think that will have any consequence in terms of politics towards the region or politics towards Saudi Arabia.”

– CNBC’s Amanda Macias contributed to this Washington report.

Scientists urge the Biden administration to require N95 masks in excessive danger workplaces

A traveler wearing a face mask is seen at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia on February 2, 2021.

Ting Shen | Xinhua News Agency | Getty Images

More than a dozen top scientists are calling on the Biden administration to demand N95 air filter masks for employees in high-risk workplaces such as meat packers and prisons.

The 13 scientists, including several who advised President Joe Biden during the transition on the pandemic, urged the government to acknowledge that the virus is more in the air than previously thought, especially with the emergence of more contagious variants. The highly effective masks filter out around 95% of all small particles.

The group, which includes David Michaels, an epidemiologist at George Washington University who headed the Occupational Safety and Health Agency under President Barack Obama, also called on OSHA to issue new standards that require improved ventilation in high-risk workplaces.

“The guidelines and recommendations of the CDC do not contain the control measures necessary to protect the public and workers from inhalation exposure to SARS-CoV-2,” the authors wrote in a letter sent on Monday to the White House response coordinator, Covid -19, Jeff Zients. The letter was also sent to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and to Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief physician, was sent.

“Failure to address inhalation exposure to SARS-CoV-2 continues to place workers and the public at serious risk of infection,” the authors continued. “People of color, many of whom are frontline jobs in important jobs, have suffered and continue to suffer from the greatest impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Federal and international health authorities, including the World Health Organization, have been slow to recognize evidence that the coronavirus can spread efficiently through the air. Only in the summer did the WHO admit that air spread cannot be ruled out after more than 200 scientists asked the agency to do so.

For its part, the CDC has apparently recognized the importance of airborne preventive measures in recent weeks, such as tight-fitting masks for the public. On Friday, the CDC issued a guide on how to reopen new schools, but only addressed the importance of ventilation, saying schools should open windows and doors whenever possible. Some doctors said it should have highlighted the importance of portable air filters or improved HVAC systems in schools.

In the letter sent on Monday, the group of scientists outlined the evidence of airborne spread of the virus, pointing to other countries, such as Germany and France, which have mandated higher quality masks for workers and recommended improved indoor ventilation. They said the current guidelines from the CDC and other agencies are “out of date” and need to be updated urgently as new, more contagious variants threaten.

CDC spokesman Jason McDonald said in a statement that the agency stands by its current masking recommendations. However, he admitted that “there is evidence that we have room for improvement”.

He said that well-fitting surgical or cloth masks are appropriate for general use and that the CDC is working to “increase the acceptance of masking, ensure that masks are used consistently and correctly, and that masks fit the face well when worn”.

“For reasons backed by science, convenience, cost, and practicality, CDC does not recommend the use of N95 respirators to protect the public against COVID-19,” he said. McDonald did not elaborate on whether to wear N95 masks in high-risk workplaces where documented outbreaks such as meat packaging lines have occurred.

The scientists said the CDC and OSHA should mandate the use of N95 masks in risky workplaces. Currently, the CDC is recommending less effective surgical masks to most healthcare workers due to the lack of N95 masks. But the scientists said there is now an increased supply of N95 masks and it is time for CDC and OSHA to mandate their use in hazardous environments where workers could be exposed to coronavirus aerosols.

On his first full day in office, Biden directed OSHA to issue emergency standards for Covid-19 by March 15, which should include rules for ventilation and masks.

“Stricter protective measures are immediately required to limit the exposure and transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and to control and end the COVID-19 pandemic,” the scientists wrote to the administration. “Measures are needed to better protect workers and the public from being inhaled by the virus.”

In response to the CDC director, the US should include Covid earlier than variants catch on and make the pandemic worse

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, selected as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks during an event at the Queen Theater in Wilmington, Del., Tuesday, December 8, 2020.

Susan Walsh | AP

The United States needs to swiftly deploy Covid-19 vaccines and step up its surveillance before highly contagious variants set in or the virus mutates again and makes the pandemic worse, said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Wednesday.

Three variants, first identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, have caused researchers some concern, according to a research suggestion shared with White House Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anthony Fauci. A CDC study published in January warned that variant B.1.1.7 found in the UK is expected to be the dominant strain in the US by March.

Variant B.1.1.7 has been shown to be highly transmissible, and “preliminary data suggest the possibility of increased disease severity with infection,” wrote Walensky, Fauci and Dr. Henry Walke, CDC’s Covid Incident Manager, in the position published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association or JAMA.

Walensky told JAMA in a separate interview on Wednesday that the variant is believed to be about 50% more transmissible than previous strains, and early data suggests it could be up to 50% more virulent or deadly.

“Model data has shown how a more contagious variant like B.1.1.7 has the potential to exacerbate the US pandemic trajectory and reverse the current downward trend in new infections and further delay control of the pandemic,” Walensky said in the newspaper .

The rise of the variants

So far, the USA has identified at least 1,277 Covid 19 cases with variant B.1.1.7 from Great Britain, 19 of variant B.1.351 discovered in South Africa and three cases of variant P.1 identified in Brazil according to the latest data from the CDC.

Monitoring of the variants in a commercial laboratory in early February suggests that the prevalence of the B.1.1.7 variant is likely to be 1% nationwide, although the prevalence could exceed 2% in some states, according to the paper.

However, the more the virus circulates and infects other people, the more likely it is that it will mutate. This is one of the reasons global health experts have urged public health measures such as social distancing, frequent hand washing and wearing of masks to be doubled until vaccines can be used and the population can achieve what is known as herd immunity.

A virus that spreads faster would also mean more people would need to be vaccinated to build an umbrella of immunity, experts have said. In the US, the levels of virus spread in the community must be “aggressively reduced” and Americans should postpone travel and avoid crowds to ensure the variants do not spread further, the leading federal health officials wrote in their view.

“The more they mutate, the more likely we’ll see dominant variants that really show up and could become a problem for us,” Walensky told JAMA. “The best we can do to prevent this from happening in general is to have fewer diseases circulating and fewer viruses circulating.”

Speed ​​up vaccinations

The US needs to accelerate the pace of vaccination to “reduce transmission, and therefore the virus replication that creates opportunities for the variants in question,” especially where the virus is spreading fastest, the officials said.

Early data suggests that the B.1.351 variant, first found in South Africa, may be able to escape the natural immunity acquired by people recovering from the Covid-19 variant. “

The problem is not limited to the US. So far, countries that have been able to introduce vaccines for their populations have mostly been in higher-income countries that have supply agreements with the pharmaceutical companies.

“If viruses are still circulating in large quantities in other countries and other parts of the world … they will continue to pose a threat to us because those variants will in fact continue to threaten whether our vaccines will continue to work. So that is it.” a global problem, “said Walensky.

Monitoring is missing

The nation’s response should not only cover the variants found in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, but also be prepared to recognize mutations that can occur domestically, Walensky said.

The country’s infrastructure for carrying out “genome sequence monitoring” for the variants in the USA has not been sufficiently prepared to detect the circulating strains.

The CDC has partnered with public health and trade laboratories to rapidly improve genome sequencing in the country. In January, the US sequenced only 250 samples per week for the variants, which have since grown “by the thousands,” Walensky said. However, she added that “we are not where we need to be”.

“It’s going to be a dial, not a switch, and we’ll have to choose it,” said Walensky.