According to a report in the New York Times, the reports published on Friday of a highly contagious new variant in the United States, are inaccurate.
Several government officials told the New York Times that the reports are based on speculative statements made by Dr. Deborah Birx, and came from a meeting where Birx, who is a member of the White House coronavirus task force, presented graphs of the escalating cases in the country.
Birx presented an hypothesis, according to which a new, more transmissible variant originating in the U.S. might explain the surge, as has happened in Britain.
According to the New York Times report, CDC officials tried to have the hypothesis removed, but were unsuccessful.