Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that there is still a “very high risk” of becoming infected with a new variant of COVID-19, even if it has been previously infected, as he urged all Americans to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Fauci, who has been appointed chief medical adviser to Joe Biden, told a White House press conference that vaccination was more important than ever, given the emergence of new strains, particularly from South Africa. England and Brazil.
On Friday, the first major analysis of the South African strain found that having been previously infected did not prevent re-infection with the new variant.
Fauci explained that the worrying news meant that more people needed to be vaccinated, to reduce the number of people in whom the virus can replicate.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told Wolf Blitzer on Monday that all Americans should get vaccinated soon
President Joe Biden is seen Friday touring Walter Reed’s vaccination site against COVID
“You need to be vaccinated when it’s available as quickly and quickly as possible across the country,” he said.
And the reason for this is that viruses cannot mutate if they do not replicate.
“And if you stop its replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus an open playing field to continue responding to the pressures you put on it, you won’t get mutations.”
As of Sunday, 471 cases of variants first identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil had been located in the United States, 467 of which were the variant found in Britain.
Fauci later told CNN that there was a “very high rate” of re-infection with new variants, if they become dominant.
“If it becomes dominant, the experience of our colleagues in South Africa indicates that even if you have been infected with the original virus, there is a very high rate of reinfection to the point that the previous infection does not seem to protect. you against reinfection, ‘He said.
Experts warn that it is a race against the clock to vaccinate people. The image shows a team preparing vaccine syringes at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts on Friday
Variants may make the vaccine less effective, Fauci said, but that didn’t mean the vaccines were a waste of time.
“While there is diminished protection against variants, there is enough protection to prevent you from suffering serious illness, including hospitalizations and deaths,” Fauci said. “So vaccination is critical.”
January was the deadliest month of the entire pandemic in the United States, with more than 95,300 deaths, an average of more than 3,070 deaths a day.
However, it now appears that the United States is following a slightly more positive trajectory.
Compared to last week, the number of people currently hospitalized with COVID-19 has dropped 10 percent or more to 38 states, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
1,562 deaths were recorded on Monday.
A new CDC order requiring people to wear masks while traveling on any type of public transportation went into effect shortly before midnight on Monday.
People can take off their masks briefly to eat, drink, or take medication; verify their identity to those responsible for law enforcement or transport; communicating with people with hearing impairments; put on an oxygen mask on an airplane; or during a medical emergency, the CDC said.
Children under the age of two or people with disabilities who cannot wear a mask are exempt.
An estimated 26 million people have received at least one dose of their two-dose vaccines, according to the CDC, and about six million have been completely vaccinated with both doses.
The United States lags behind other countries in terms of vaccinating people, particularly Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Britain.
Israel vaccinates 1.87 people per 100,000, according to Our World In Data.
The United Arab Emirates is second with 1.26 and Britain is tied with Serbia for third, with 0.58.
The United States is fifth, with 0.4 people per 100,000.