Federal health agencies are preparing for the possibility that current COVID-19 vaccines may not be effective against future coronavirus strains, Anthony Fauci
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Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci, at an event hosted by The Hill, said the federally authorized vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are effective against multiple strains identified so far.
Fauci noted that monoclonal antibody treatments are not necessarily as effective, but he is not concerned about vaccines.
“We are preparing, with the forecast that the virus will continue to evolve and may reach the point where it crosses the threshold that our vaccine is no longer as effective as we want it to be,” Fauci said.
“We don’t want it to happen. We hope it doesn’t happen. If it does, we’re already doing what it takes to be able to address it,” Fauci added.
Fauci said he is confident the country will have enough supply of Modern and Pfizer vaccines, especially if President Biden is able to secure an additional 100 million doses for each company, a move the president announced Tuesday.
The calculations do not include Johnson & Johnson, according to a Fauci firm, which is “literally at the peak” of the final results of safety and efficacy trials.
There are currently three variants of the coronavirus that affect health experts and officials: strain B.1.1.7, which was discovered in the UK; B.1.351, which was found in South Africa; and P.1, which has become dominant in Brazil.
Fauci said the technology and science behind vaccines are easily adaptable, so if they need to be updated they can happen quickly.
“It will make it much easier for us to adapt to the mutants, the new lineages we are seeing in South Africa, the UK, Brazil, the UK is already in 25 or more states,” Fauci said.
“So it’s likely that as we move forward, even though our vaccines seem to be still effective against new lineages, as the virus evolves, we may need to quickly develop a reinforcement that reflects the circulating mutant because we can use antibodies to protect, ”Fauci said.
Earlier Wednesday, Fauci said during a White House briefing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will work with National Institutes of Health to study the effectiveness of vaccines against new strains.
“We will monitor in real time the effect of the antibodies we induced with current and future vaccines in terms of the impact they have on the ability to neutralize these mutants,” Fauci said.
He added that if vaccines start to be less effective, that’s when they will start taking actions like “making a version of the same vaccine that will, in fact, be specifically targeted at the relevant mutants”.
Fauci said “things are getting a little more problematic” with the B.1.351 strain dominating South Africa.
But Fauci added that the vaccine is effective and “is still inside the cushion.”
Despite some positive developments, Fauci told The Hill that there is still a long way to go and that the United States will not be able to approach “a certain degree of normalcy” until late fall.
“We need to be prepared for this to be an elusive virus, which we should make some modifications to in our interventions, whatever they are; an improved vaccine, different types of monoclonal antibodies,” Fauci said.
“So yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel; we will start to approach a certain degree of normalcy as we enter late autumn this year as we enter winter. But we have to watch out. and our pressure on him. Otherwise, he could run away from it. ”