NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said in a press briefing On Thursday, the variant of the coronavirus Mu, which is now followed by the World Health Organization, does not pose an immediate threat to the United States.
Leading the news: The WHO added the Mu strain, first detected in Colombia in January, to the list of “Variants of Interest” on Monday, warning that early data suggest it may be more resistant to protection against previous infection or vaccination.
- Mu has been detected in 39 countries and has become increasingly common in South America. It currently accounts for 39% of cases in Colombia and 13% in Ecuador.
The big picture: Fauci said that while officials are “closely monitoring” Mu’s presence in the U.S., the variant “is not even close to being dominant.”
- The Delta variant, he added, is “more than 99% dominant.”
- “We are vigilant, we take it seriously, but now we do not consider it an immediate threat.”
But, but, but: Fauci said too much clinical data is not yet available and that most of the information came from in vitro laboratory data.
- “Not to minimize it, we take it very seriously, but remember, even when you have variants that slightly decrease the effectiveness of vaccines, vaccines are still quite effective against variants of this type,” Fauci said. .