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Fauci said earlier that surveillance of viruses in the US is not at the level he would like to see. However, vaccinations against the South African strain, as well as the ‘British’ coronavirus variant, would still be successful, he claimed.
The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, director and current adviser to US President Joe Biden, Anthony Fauci, warned on Sunday that new data suggests that the COVID-19 strain that first appeared in the UK is more deadly can be as the original.
“We must now assume that the spread in the UK does have an increase in virulence, which means that the power of the virus can cause more damage, including death,” Fauci said in an interview with CBS.
Fauci said British officials initially claimed the new version was not more dangerous, but after a report showed that it was about 30% more lethal in older adults, they reversed the course.
Among 60-year-olds in the UK, the average death rate was around 10 per 10,000. But with the youngest tribe, in the same population, there were about 13 or 14 deaths per 10,000.
“We want to look at the data ourselves, but we have every reason to believe it. “They are a very capable group,” Fauci said.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the British tribe has been confirmed in at least 22 countries.
Fauci claims that the vaccines available for COVID-19 still look successful against the variant, although he acknowledges that there may be a “very slight reduction” in safety. However, he said that it is a bit more worrying when it comes to a new strain that occurs for the first time in South Africa, and which is more resistant to the vaccine, and therefore health authorities and companies will release their vaccines in the future.
“It seems to reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine more, but we are still within the cushioning level of the vaccines that are beneficial to these mutants,” Fauci said. “Having said that, we’re going to look at this and follow it very closely, because these things are evolving. What we will do and do is make preparations for the possibility that we, perhaps, will need the vaccines. “
On Friday, the kingdom’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, declared that the evidence showed a ‘higher mortality rate’ of the new variant, which could reach up to 30%, although some scientists questioned such conclusions reached ahead of time.
The UK notified the World Health Organization in December of a mutated version of the new coronavirus that is said to be 70% more transmissible than other strains. Although the youngest strain is not shown to be more pathogenic, several countries have closed their borders with the United Kingdom and suspended travel. However, the closures so far have not stopped the spread of the variant.
According to Johns Hopkins University data, the US led the global coronavirus count, with more than 25 million infections and more than 418,000 virus-related deaths.