The emergence of new variants of coronavirus should be an “alert” for the country, Anthony Fauci
Anthony Fauci COVID-19 cases fall, but variants point to dangers ahead The first American cases of a variant of the South African virus reported in South Carolina Fauci warns that the situation of COVID-19 “could worsen” given new variants MORE he said Friday.
During a White House coronavirus briefing, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the different mutations have “clinical consequences” that will need to be addressed.
Recent studies by Johnson & Johnson and Novavax have shown some protection in their vaccines against variants, but the results are much weaker against strain B.1.351, which was first discovered in South Africa.
“This is an alarm clock call for all of us,” Fauci said. “We will continue to see the evolution of the mutants, so … we will have to be agile to be able to easily adjust to make versions of the vaccine that are specifically targeted to any mutation that is traveling at any given time.”
Director of disease control and prevention centers Rochelle WalenskyRochelle Walensky The Hill’s Morning Report: essay question on Dems; January becomes the deadliest pandemic month. The Report: Biden faces risks as COVID’s optimism stops. CDC says coronavirus could kill up to 514K on Feb. 20 | Vaccine research funds have been in use for decades, MÀ says said the country is working to rapidly increase genomic sequencing to better identify different variants.
However, he said the virus is so widespread that all new cases should be treated as if it were a new variant.
“By the time someone has symptoms, a test is done, it has a positive result and we get the sequence, our chance to do a real case check and contact tracking is already gone,” Walensky said. “And so I think, and I think we should treat all cases as if it were a variant during this pandemic right now.”
According to Fauci, the goal remains to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible.
“Mutations occur because the virus has a playing field, so to speak, to mutate. If you stop this and stop replication, the viruses will not be able to mutate,” Fauci said. “And that’s the reason for continuing to do what we’re doing, which is to step up our capacity and our implementation to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible.”