Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that the available COVID-19 vaccines appear to be less effective against new strains of the coronavirus, reports CNBC.
What happened
Fauci, the White House health advisor, said Thursday that the new COVID-19 vaccines available – specifically the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – offer some help against the new COVID-19 mutations that are emerging around the world. But there is still some concern.
- “We are following South Africa very carefully, which is a little more worrying, but it is not something we think we cannot handle,” Fauci told CNBC.
Fauci said that mutations often occur among viruses. But the mutations can be defeated if enough people are vaccinated, according to CNBC.
- “Viruses don’t mutate unless they replicate,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to CNN.
- “And if you can suppress that with a very good vaccine campaign, then you can really avoid this harmful effect that you can get from mutations,” said Fauci, according to CNN.
- “Conclusion: we are paying close attention to this. There are alternative plans if we ever have to modify the vaccine. This is not a very expensive thing, we can do that given the platforms we have, ”said Fauci, according to CNBC.
What the vaccine developers say
Pfizer-BioNTech released the results of a new study earlier this week that looked at whether or not the COVID-19 vaccine could defeat the new variant in the UK.
- The research – published in bioRxiv – showed “no biologically significant differences in neutralization activity”, as I wrote for Deseret News. This means that the COVID-19 variant did not change enough characteristics to escape the vaccine.