MEMPHIS, Tennessee — "Once we find it in the community, there are already cases we don't know about," Dr. Steve Threlkeld with Baptist Memorial Hospital said.
That's the reality for Shelby County doctors, as they closely monitor the potential impact of the United Kingdom - or U.K. - strain of the coronavirus.
Scientists at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis said their lab week uncovered the first local case.
"At the rate we are going on vaccines, I wouldn't imagine that we will prevent it from becoming likely the dominant variant in our community," Dr. Threlkeld said.
Dr. Threlkeld said Monday while there's concern the more contagious U.K. strain could cause a spike in area transmission, it's not a certainty.
"Some people have predicted you know, brand new, very large surges, and I think that's probably not very clear yet," Dr. Threlkeld said.
With the recent emergence of the U.K. COVID-19 variant - along with those linked to Brazil and South Africa - the science is still evolving on how effective the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on the market are in protecting against them.
"Potentially those variants could continue down that path of more and more resistance," Dr. Threlkeld said.
While there's no local confirmation of the South African COVID-19 variant, potential future vaccine options show uneven results.
In South Africa, scientists there recently found the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be 57% effective against serious COVID-19 symptoms, compared to 49% percent effectiveness with the Novavax vaccine.
"Thankfully it hasn't reached the point where the vaccine would be expected to out and out fail, but it is a track we want to stay off," Dr. Threlkeld said.
Health experts said Monday the mixed signals of how existing or future vaccine options protect against the several variants is another sign of re-doubling efforts to socially distance and mask up.
