Dr. Anthony Fauci, a White House health adviser, recently told CNN that the United States has two tools to help defeat the COVID-19 variant.
Fauci told CNN the United States can adhere to social health measures to stop the virus:
- “The two ways we can oppose one continue to be the kind of public intervention we talk about all the time.” These include washing your hands, taking social distances, avoiding large crowds, and wearing masks.
Fauci told CNN the other important way to stop the variant is to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine.
- “But also, as you vaccinate more and more people, as the weeks and months go by, you have a vaccine that works against this variant,” Fauci said, referring to the South African variant. “So if we roll out the vaccine … and get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible while maintaining public health measures, we should be fine.”
Concerns about variants
Researchers continue to be concerned about the South African variant of the new coronavirus. As Reuters reports, the South African variant could reduce protection against the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine by two-thirds, a sign that the vaccine may not fully protect people against the variant, according to Reuters.
Reportedly, Pfizer and Moderna have started creating a third survey of their vaccine, which would upgrade the vaccine to protect against the variant, as I wrote about Deseret News.