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It appears they were right. Cases of the variant have been identified in more than a dozen countries across the world. Health officials in Ontario, Canada, said on Saturday that they had identified two cases of the variant in a couple with no known travel history or exposure.

The United States sequences far fewer genomes than Britain does, which has led American scientists to suspect that the variant might already have been in the country undetected as well. On Tuesday, the United States joined the ranks of nations with B.1.1.7.

Dr. Hanage said that the United States would have to improve how it monitors the genetic sequences of circulating viruses to track their spread. It is conceivable that the new variant might have fueled recent outbreaks in the Midwest and Rhode Island, for example, but scientists do not know because public health officials have not been tracking the viruses carefully enough across the entire country.

“The United States is hobbled by the inconsistency of its approach,” he said. “Unless we turn on the lights, we won’t know it’s there.”

Because B.1.1.7 appears to be so much more contagious than other strains, British researchers have warned that current restrictions in the United Kingdom may not be sufficient. In a preliminary study, they found that schools may need to be closed and vaccination programs aggressively accelerated to prevent a surge in cases.

If B.1.1.7 takes off in the United States, it’s possible that vaccination may have to accelerate there as well. But in the first two weeks, the U.S. vaccination program is moving more slowly than expected.

“You need to be able to get whatever barriers to transmission you can out there as soon as possible,” Dr. Hanage said.

Nicholas Davies, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in an interview last week that it was clear “that more rapid vaccination is going to be a really important thing for any country that has to deal with this or similar variants.”