Fear of new virus variant pushes U.S. toward more genomic sequencing

The CDC said this week that the new B.1.1.7 strain may become the most dominant form of the virus in the U.S. by March The United Kingdom’s use of genomic sequencing to identify a more infectious strain of SARS-CoV-2 has largely served as a wake-up call for inadequate use of the technology in the U.S. Up until mid-December, the U.S. had sequenced about 0.3% of its COVID-19 samples, a percentage that is significantly lower than other developed countries despite the fact that it has one-fourth of the world’s cases. In comparison, the U.K. is sequencing about 10% of its samples, and Australia aims to real-time sequence all of the relatively limited number of positive COVID-19 tests there. “The U.S. has been a no-show for sequencing if you look at the world stage,” said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. “Sequencing gives us many different things. It tells us how the...