- Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation White House Warpspeed, said the new coronavirus variant “should be under control” with vaccines.
- “This virus actually mutates as part of its normal behavior and, therefore, it is normal to expect variants,” said Slaoui in an interview in “Face the Nation” by CBS on Sunday.
- Vaccine companies and health experts said that coronavirus vaccines should work to protect against the new variant that is believed to be up to 70% more transmissible.
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Moncef Slaoui, head of Operation White House Warpspeed, said the new coronavirus variant “should be under control” with vaccines.
“This virus actually mutates as part of its normal behavior and, therefore, it is normal to expect variants,” said Slaoui in an interview in “Face the Nation” by CBS on Sunday. “Based on the information shared with us by UK scientists and the first data we have here, we think that this variant of the virus should be under control with this vaccine.”
A new variant of the coronavirus that is believed to be possibly up to 70% more transmissible was reported in the UK in late December. Since then, parts of the UK have come under strict restrictions and many countries around the world have restricted inbound travel from the country.
—Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) January 3, 2021
At least 33 countries have detected cases of the new variant, and the United States reported cases of the new variant in San Diego and Colorado last week.
Vaccine companies and health experts said the coronavirus vaccines, which began shipping around the country last month, should work to protect against the new variant. The BioNTech CEO said there was a “relatively high” chance that the company’s vaccine with Pfizer would work, and the CEO of AstraZeneca said the vaccine “should remain effective”. As Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce of Business Insider reported, experts have folded this vaccine likely to work against new strains of the virus.