Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that the UK coronavirus strain appears to be more deadly, but what it means for the vaccine’s effectiveness is still unknown.
The UK strain was widely reported to be a more contagious strain of coronavirus, but experts warned it was not a more deadly strain.
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Now, new data suggests that the variant is indeed more deadly, which Fauci discussed during an appearance on Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” program.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, attends a press conference of the Coronavirus Task Force at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Friday, April 10, 2020. Photographer: Kevin Dietsch / UPI / Bloomberg via Getty Images
“When British researchers looked more closely at the mortality rate for a particular age group, they found it was 1 per thousand and went up to 1.3 per thousand in a given group, so it’s a significant increase,” said Fauci to host Margaret Brennan.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed on Friday that the new variant appears to be up to 30% more virulent, based on death rates among patients 65 and older.
The UK strain has been detected in the United States, with cases reported in 22 states so far.
“We want to analyze the data ourselves, but we have every reason to believe it,” said Fauci, referring to British medical professionals. “We are going to look at this and proceed very, very carefully because these things evolve.”
“We need to assume now that what has been circulating predominantly in the UK has a certain degree of increase in what we call virulence, that is, the virus’s power to cause more damage, including death,” he added.
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The Center for Disease Control (CDC) projected that, due to its more contagious nature, the UK variant will be the dominant strain in the United States in March.
Many are therefore concerned that the current vaccination effort may be in vain, but Fauci warned that the effects on the vaccine’s effectiveness remain unknown. Even in the case of reduced effectiveness, Fauci believes that the effect would be minimal.
“When we look at the effect of the chain, this strain which is the strain of the United Kingdom which is in at least 20 states in the USA, the antibodies induced by the vaccine … seem to continue to protect against the mutant strain,” explained Fauci. “It is a very small decrease, but the cushion you have of effectiveness is so big that it will not have a negative impact.”
Instead, Fauci emphasized the importance of continuing to vaccinate as many people as possible, arguing that, once more people are vaccinated, it will help prevent further mutations of the virus from taking root.
In addition, Fauci called for greater investment in “genomic surveillance”, which would help authorities determine whether and when new strains of the coronavirus will enter the United States.
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The South African strain has also raised some concerns as it has been shown to decrease the effectiveness of some antibody treatments.
So far, no case of the South Africa variant has been discovered in the United States.