Fauci: ‘We have to assume now’ that the British virus strain can ’cause more damage’

Fauci: ‘We have to assume now’ that the British virus strain can ’cause more damage’

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Anthony FauciAnthony FauciAstraZeneca begins the distribution of the vaccine in Brazil Biden and the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom discuss NATO, multilateralism during Sunday’s conference call preview: All eyes on the Biden administration to fight the coronavirus MORE, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, said recent data released by the British government suggests that a new, more virulent strain of the coronavirus is also more deadly, but said American officials need to examine the numbers themselves.

Asked by Margaret Brennan of CBS about her earlier allegations that the strain, while more infectious, apparently was no longer deadly, Fauci said: “The data that emerged was after they said all along that it didn’t seem to be more deadly. So that’s when we got that information. “

“When British researchers looked more closely at the mortality rate for a particular age group, they found it to be one in a thousand … and then it went up to 1.3 per thousand in a given group,” added Fauci. “It is a significant increase. Therefore, the latest data is in line with what the British are saying. We want to analyze the data ourselves, but we have every reason to believe it. They are a very competent group. “

Fauci continued, saying that Americans “must now assume that what has been circulating predominantly in the UK has a certain increase in what we call virulence, that is, the virus’s power to do more damage, including death.”

Fauci separately addressed another strain that is believed to have originated in South Africa, saying “in some cases [the strain] decreases the effectiveness of the vaccine, ”but the vaccine was still generally effective.

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