Anthony Fauci
Anthony FauciOvernight Health Care: CDC says three meters safe in schools Surgery of COVID-19 cases in Europe, Brazil, warns US | Biden hits Trump live on first visit to CDC Watch: White House press briefing COVID-19 response team Overnight health care: Biden says the country will pass 100 million COVID-19 shots this week | US to send surplus doses of AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico, Canada Senate confirms Becerra for HHS in tougher votes MORE, the government’s leading expert on infectious diseases, has warned that variants of the coronavirus could account for up to 30 percent of infections in the US
Fauci specifically sounded the alarm during a press conference in the White House on Friday about the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first discovered in the UK and has since spread around the world.
“As you know, this variant is becoming more and more dominant in our own country every day,” Fauci said.
‘It was first detected in the UK in December 2020. It has been reported in more than 90 countries. The first US cases were detected in the United States, in Colorado, at the end of December 2020. “Since then, it has been detected in 50 jurisdictions in the United States, and now it probably covers about 20 to 30 percent of the infections in this country, and it is increasing,” he said.
Fauci took note of experts’ concerns that the variant is more easily transmissible and that it is more likely to be a serious infection once it is contracted.
‘It is worrying that the spread with this particular variant documented in the UK is increasing by about 50 per cent, and that the disease will increase severely if infected with this variant,’ he said.
Public health officials specifically pointed to the British variant, as well as other tribes, in their calls to the public not to wear safety guidelines such as wearing masks and facilitating social distance.
One study showed an increased risk of death for people with the B.1.1.7 variant by 64 percent, and another had a 61 percent higher risk of death.
However, vaccines have been shown to be effective against the variant.
‘The way we can counter 1.1.7, which is a growing threat in our country, is to do two things: to get as many people vaccinated as quickly and as quickly as possible with the vaccine we know works against this variant; and lastly, to implement the public health measures we are talking about all the time, ”Fauci said.