As the nation turned the page in the deadliest month since the coronavirus pandemic began, Dr. Anthony Fauci called on Americans to get one of the COVID-19 vaccines to help prevent the emergence of new variants of the virus.
“You need to be vaccinated when you are available as quickly and expeditiously as possible,” said Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical advisor, during a virtual press conference by the White House response team COVID-19. “And the reason for that is … viruses cannot mutate if they don’t replicate. And if you stop replicating by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus an open playing field to continue to respond to the pressures you put on it, you will not get mutations.
“… You will not only protect individuals from contracting disease, not only will you protect them from being infected,” he said, “but you will also prevent variants from arising.”
Last week, Fauci warned that the new variants that were initially identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil – and since then found in the United States – should end up exceeding the number of cases of the original strain of the virus. The UK variant has already been found in nearly three dozen states.
Fauci also said that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is less effective than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, will still be useful in the global fight against the pandemic, especially since it is available in a single dose compared to the two-dose regimens needed to the others.
“A cheap, disposable vaccine means a lot,” said Fauci.
At the start of the briefing, the Biden government announced that it had closed an agreement to produce the first over-the-counter coronavirus tests.
Andy Slavitt, senior consultant on the White House’s COVID-19 response team, said the $ 30 home tests, produced by Australian firm Ellume, are 95% effective at detecting the virus. The test results, which the US Food and Drug Administration authorized for use in December 2020, are sent to users’ smartphones in 15 minutes.
The government gave Ellume $ 230 million to increase production, said Slavitt, with at least 8.5 million test kits available for the United States.
The White House’s latest public update on coronavirus comes amid an increasing death toll in the United States. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said more than 90,000 Americans died of complications from COVID-19 in January, making it the deadliest pandemic month to date.
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