The White House has held “serious discussions” with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention over the recommendation that COVID-19 vaccines be able to socialize together, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said he is eager to take that advice. and finally hugging her daughter a year later.
Noting that “while it’s not backed by data, it’s backed by common sense,” Fauci told Chris Cuomo on CNN on Thursday night that people who have received all of their doses could start staying.
Fauci, who is President Biden’s scientific adviser, noted that “while the risk is not zero, the risk becomes extremely low when both parties are vaccinated.
“So we’re going to start seeing people say,‘ Hey, the more people get vaccinated, the more I can have dinner with my family member coming in, ’” he said.
“Before getting vaccinated, if they wanted to come and visit you, they would have to be quarantined for a while, get tested, wear a mask,” the country’s chief infectious disease doctor said.
“My professional judgment is that when my daughter wants to come in here and is doubly vaccinated, I will have her at home and give her a big hug for which I have not been able to do for a year,” she added.
Fauci also discussed the new coronavirus strain that appears in the Big Apple that shares some of the characteristics with the South African variant.
In mid-February, the variant – called B.1.526 – was present in approximately 12% of coronavirus samples collected in and around the city, according to researchers from the College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University Vagelos.
“You know, it just started a cluster in the Washington Heights section of Columbia Medical Center and then it started touring other parts of the city, the other neighborhoods, and it’s something you really want to pay attention to because it has some mutations. worrying, the accumulation of mutations, ”Fauci told CNN.
“Once again, this is the reason why we continue to take public health measures and vaccinate as many people as you can. Anything you throw at us about a mutant will be countered by vaccinating people, ”he said.
When asked if current vaccines work against the variant, Fauci said, “No, we don’t know if it works directly against it, but that’s the point you want to convey to people.
“While this vaccine does not directly adapt to a variant that may occur, anywhere (South America, South Africa, California, New York), the higher the level of protection against the original, there will be an overflow of protection against the variant “.