It was a few important days for Dr. Anthony Fauci, but he talked to WTOP about changes in the US approach to global health, as well as the latest developments in the fight against COVID-19.
Important days have passed for Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, since President Joe Biden took office on Wednesday and began to make major changes in the country’s approach to global health.
Fauci spoke to the WTOP about these changes, as well as the variants of COVID-19, the vaccines that were developed for the ongoing struggle and the way the vaccines have been distributed so far.
Back to WHO
In the first 48 hours of Biden, the U.S. returned to the World Health Organization, which former President Donald Trump had left, blaming it for the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic (without ever explaining the reasoning behind his assumption). When Biden made the announcement, he asked Fauci to become the head of the American delegation on the WHO executive board.
Fauci told WTOP that he was “very privileged” for being invited and honored to accept.
“President Biden and Vice President (Kamala) Harris pointed out as one of the main issues on their agenda to return to some kind of normalization with WHO,” said Fauci. “When you have a pandemic that is a global pandemic – which, by definition, is what a pandemic is – you have to have a global response. So it was really unsustainable that we were not intimately connected with WHO. “
Fauci added that the United States will resume its financial contributions to the organization and agreed to join COVAX, a consortium of countries dedicated to providing vaccines to developing countries.
The US has also repealed the “Mexico City policy” that any abortion-related group could not obtain any US funding.
“So this is where we are,” said Fauci. “We are back on the international stage, when we had previously retired.”
COVID-19 variants
RNA viruses like SARS-COV-2 “tend to mutate,” said Fauci, and the development of new variants, such as the one that was recently discovered in the UK, comes as no surprise.
The good news about the new variant, which Fauci said is dominating cases in the UK, is that it is no longer deadly on its own. But it is more transmissible and, in real-world conditions, “if there is an increase in transmissibility, more people will go to the hospital and, ultimately, more people will die,” he said.
The big question with the new variant, added Fauci, is what impact it will have on vaccine effectiveness, as well as on the monoclonal antibodies that are being used as treatment in some cases.
In the USA, Fauci said, “It doesn’t seem to have a significant impact on the vaccine’s effectiveness, although it may decrease it a little.”
Variations in the virus are, however, causing major problems in Brazil and especially in South Africa, said Fauci – “not enough to take [treatments and vaccines] off the chart … but enough to make us say, ‘You really have to keep an eye on that.’ “
And while it is not yet a major problem in the United States, the possibility of variations in the virus means that the authorities have to be “agile” about the possibility of having to “modify the vaccine”, said Fauci.
He was quick to point out that this only makes vaccination even more important: “Because when you prevent a virus … from replicating easily, you prevent it from mutating. So, if you don’t want to see a virus invasion in this country, suppress all the viruses that are here. “
“So, we are looking carefully; it doesn’t seem to have a significant impact on what we are doing, but we want to be ready to be agile and make changes if necessary, ”said Fauci.
As for other travel restrictions, the doctor said: “Nothing definitive, nothing definitive has been decided on this. But this is certainly being considered. “
Vaccine implementation
Speaking of which, the launch of COVID-19 vaccines in the United States had its problems, but Fauci said he was confident that the problems would be corrected. “We need to do better – I mean, obviously.”
That said, he added: “Some states, some cities did very, very well with the initial launch. Whenever a very complicated situation occurs, such as trying to vaccinate a country of 330 million people in the middle of an outbreak, there will be bumps along the way and hiccups ”.
He said that about 16 million Americans have been vaccinated, while just over 30 million doses have been distributed.
“We would like to see this gap narrow a little. Now, obviously, there is a delay in the report. Therefore, it is very likely that there will be significantly more than 16, 17 million people vaccinated; they just haven’t been vaccinated yet, ”said Fauci.
The ideal is a “constant flow … as the vaccine arrives, it goes to people”, without vaccines languishing in freezers and without people waiting in line for a vaccine that is not yet there.
“So, we can do better. I mean, you have to admit that – and that’s what we’re trying to do. “
Fauci said it was still important for people who had given the first doses to get the second. “What we know from experience with this and other viruses, and other vaccines, is that at the end of the primary, you get some degree – not the ideal – of protection before receiving the second dose. We don’t know how long the protection is. “
“At the moment, protection after a dose is not ideal, but there is one to be sure. But we don’t know durability, which is why the clinical trial with data guides us, tells us that to be optimally protected with mRNA vaccines, you need two doses, and you’re ideally protected after second dose, “he added.
After vaccinated
And when you get vaccinated, said Fauci, you need to continue wearing a face mask and continue social detachment and other steps that help slow the spread of COVID-19.
If you are vaccinated, you can still carry the virus, explained Fauci. “It’s conceivable that you get infected, don’t know, don’t get sick, be well – but you’re spreading enough viruses to be a threat to other people.”
Even if everyone in his house is vaccinated, Fauci said: “The herd immunity at home is different from the herd immunity in the population”.
This is still a bit distant: “We would probably need about 70% to 85% of the vaccinated population before you get collective immunity. When we get to that point, you could talk about relaxing some of the public health restrictions – not completely, not everything, but not the rigor that we are demanding now. “
Health disparities
Fauci reiterated the extra problems that the black and Latin communities face as a result of the disparities that have existed in American society for much longer than the virus.
“First, they are more likely to be infected based on the jobs that many of them have, who are in the community, interacting with people in essential jobs. Then, when they are infected, they have a higher incidence and prevalence of comorbidities that make it more likely that you will have a serious result if you are infected. And those are things like hypertension, diabetes, obesity, chronic lung disease, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease.
“The social determinants of health are such that these people, purely in demographic terms, have a higher incidence. It’s not racial, it’s the things they unfortunately experienced, through no fault of their own, literally from birth – you know, inadequate food, economic situation, lack of access to health, that sort of thing.
“So, I hope that if anything comes out of our experience here, we commit to removing [them]. And it will take decades to do that, ”said Fauci.
The final result
“I think things are going to get worse a little bit before it gets better,” said Fauci.
He said that the case numbers are starting to stabilize, meaning that hospitalizations and deaths are expected to decrease compared to the “bizarre” statistics of a month ago, when there were 300,000 to 400,000 cases and 4,000 deaths per day.
“So even though there are tough times ahead, I think that things – if we continue on the course, continue to implement public health measures – we hope that we will get even better as we enter in February and March,” said Fauci.
Mike Murillo of WTOP contributed to this report.
More news about Coronavirus
Looking for more information? DC, Maryland and Virginia are rolling out more data every day. Visit their official websites here: Virginia | Maryland | A.D