- Johnson & Johnson and Novavax vaccines were less effective against a new variant of the virus.
- “It is really a wake-up call for us,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci.
- People should still be vaccinated as soon as possible, added Fauci.
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The United States needs to step up efforts to stem the spread of the coronavirus, said Dr. Anthony Fauci on Friday, after two vaccines were less effective against a new variant of the virus.
“It is really a wake-up call for us to be agile and adjust as this virus will surely continue to evolve and mutate,” said Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
He spoke at a conference call held by the National Institutes of Health to discuss data on the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine. J&J said its vaccine was 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe cases of COVID-19 in general, but less effective in South Africa, where a variant of the virus is spreading. Novavax said on Thursday that its coronavirus vaccine was also less effective against this coronavirus variant.
The first American cases of this variant were identified on Thursday.
Fauci said that Americans need to be vaccinated as soon as possible.
“The best way to prevent a virus from evolving is to prevent it from replicating, and you do that by vaccinating people as quickly as possible,” he said during the briefing, which was conducted with other NIH employees and J&J executives.
Experts had previously expressed hope that the COVID vaccines currently on the market, as well as those that were in development, would remain strong against the variants, as long as there were no major changes in the spike protein – a key component of the virus. But the South African variant has changes in that part of the virus.
Read More: Moderna is designing a new version of its Covid-19 shot to address a new variant
Even the two vaccines currently on the market in the United States, from Moderna and Pfizer, can be affected by the new variant. Both companies said their vaccines must still produce enough protective antibodies to stop the virus, although laboratory results have shown that protection may be diminished. As a precaution, Moderna and Pfizer are now working on reinforcement shots that can target variants directly.