Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that the new Mu variant of COVID-19 is not considered an “immediate threat” to the U.S.
Federal officials are “closely monitoring” the mutation of the virus, although it is “not even about to be dominant” in the U.S., the White House chief medical officer said.
“In short, we look at it. We take it seriously, but we do not consider it an immediate threat at the moment “, said Fauci during a COVID-19 information session of the White House.
Also known as B.1.621, the strain was added to the World Health Organization’s list of “variants of interest” on Monday. Preliminary data show that it can evade certain antibodies, which means vaccines would be less effective against it, but experts said more research on the strain is needed.
Since it first appeared in Colombia in January, the variant has appeared in at least 39 countries, including the United States.
Fauci said Mu has not yet “taken over” the country, where the Delta variant is by far dominant, accounting for about 99% of new cases.
The 7-day continuous average of new cases of COVID-19 was nearly 150,000 a day, while hospitalizations were 12,000 and deaths were 953, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
The CDC chief also announced that the agency would publish two new studies on COVID-19 in children on Friday, showing that children living in communities with high vaccination rates were less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19.
The results predicted by Walensky also showed that the hospitalization rate of children with COVID-19 was almost four times higher in states that had the lowest overall vaccination rates.
“These studies showed that the severity of the disease in children did not increase. Instead, there are more children with COVID-19 because there are more diseases in the community, ”he said.
At least 175 million Americans are fully vaccinated against the virus, an increase of 10 million from a month ago, officials said in the briefing.
The United States experienced an increase in inoculations after the full approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine by the Food and Drug Administration last month, but the increase could also be due to other factors, including the fear of the Delta variant.
Fauci also told reporters that it is “likely” that Americans will end up needing to get a third dose of the vaccine to be considered fully inoculated, even though the FDA and CDC make the final decision.
He discussed data from studies conducted on the release of Israeli booster shots that showed that the risk of COVID-19 infection was lower in people who had received a third dose of the vaccine.
White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said the federal government will bring “the same intensity” to encouraging Americans to receive booster shots as it did for the initial vaccination campaign.
Zients also announced that the U.S. would invest another $ 3 million to expand production of “critical supplies,” including vaccines in U.S. companies.
The United States has pledged to give 600 million doses of the shot to other nations, Zients said, “the largest contribution made by any country.”
“We can protect the American people and contribute to the world, as we lead the world in given vaccine doses,” he told reporters.
With publishing cables