The emergence of new variants of the coronavirus should be a “warning” for the country, Anthony Fauci
Anthony FauciCOVID-19’s cases fall, but the variants point to dangers ahead. First cases in the USA of the South African virus variant reported in South Carolina Fauci warn that the situation of COVID-19 ‘could potentially get worse’ due to new variants MORE said Friday.
During a coronavirus briefing at the White House, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the different mutations have “clinical consequences” that need to be addressed.
Recent studies by Johnson & Johnson and Novavax have shown some protection in their variant vaccines, but the results are much weaker against the B.1.351 strain, which was first discovered in South Africa.
“This is an alert for all of us,” said Fauci. “We will continue to see the evolution of the mutants, so … we will have to be nimble to be able to readily adjust to make versions of the vaccine that are actually specifically targeted to any mutation that is actually traveling at a given time.”
Director of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Rochelle WalenskyRochelle Walensky’s morning report, The Hill – Dems question judgment; January becomes the deadliest month of the pandemic The Memo: Biden faces risks with COVID’s optimism crippling. Overnight Health Care: Biden consultant offers more pessimistic predictions about vaccine launch | CDC says coronavirus can kill up to 514K on February 20 | Vaccine research funds have been misused for decades, watchdog says MORE said the country is working to rapidly increase its genomic sequencing in order to better identify the different variants.
However, she said the virus is so widespread that each new case should be treated as if it were a new variant.
“By the time someone has symptoms, gets tested, has a positive result and we get the sequence, our opportunity to do the real case control and and the contact tracking is gone,” said Walensky. “And so I think, and I believe that we should treat each case as if it were a variant during this pandemic now.”
According to Fauci, the goal remains to vaccinate as many people as possible quickly.
“Mutations occur because the virus has a playing field, so to speak, to mutate. If you stop that and stop replicating, viruses cannot mutate,” said Fauci. “And that is the reason for us to continue doing what we are doing, that is, to intensify our capacity and implementation to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible.”