Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned that vaccination of Americans against Covid is more critical than ever, especially since South Africa’s new variant appears to inhibit antibody drugs.
“The South Africa variant is very worrying now because it looks like it can avoid some of our medical countermeasures, particularly antibody drugs,” said the former FDA chief in the Trump administration in an interview with the newspaper “The News with CNBC’s Shepard Smith “” Tuesday night. “At the moment, this strain seems to be prevalent in South America and Brazil, the two parts of the world now, which are in their summer, but also experiencing a very dense epidemic, and this is worrying.
The South African variant is also known as 501.V2, and in mid-December, authorities reported that 501.V2 largely replaced other strains of the coronavirus as early as November. South Africa has already suffered more than 1.1 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 30,000 deaths, mostly on the African continent.
Gottlieb cited experimental evidence of Bloom Lab, and explained 501.V2 appears to partially escape previous immunity. This means that some of the antibodies that people make when they are infected with Covid, as well as antibiotic drugs, may not be as effective.
“The new variant mutated a part of the spike protein to which our antibodies attach, to try to clear the virus itself, so that is worrying,” said Gottlieb. “Now, the vaccine may become an obstacle against those variants that are really gaining more space here in the United States, but we need to speed up the pace of vaccination.”
Production and distribution director for Operation Warp Speed, Ret. Lieutenant-General Paul Ostrowski told presenter Shepard Smith on December 3 that anyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get it in June. Projections are currently falling short, however. More than 17 million doses of Covid have been distributed to states, but only 4.8 million Americans have received their first injection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gottlieb suggested working more quickly through prioritized categories of people, expanding the number of vaccination sites and stocking a smaller percentage of doses to vaccinate more Americans.
“It’s really a race against time to try to get more vaccine into people’s arms before these new variants become more prevalent here in the United States,” said Gottlieb.
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and board member of Pfizer, the genetic testing start-up Tempus and the biotechnology company Illumina. Pfizer has a manufacturing agreement with Gilead to remive. Gottlieb also serves as co-chair of the Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings‘ AND Royal Caribbean“Healthy Candle Panel”.