Another variant first spotted in the UK appears to make the virus more transmissible, the scientist said, adding that it could overload US hospitals if it became widespread here. So far, about 20 states have tracked down the British variant.
Compiled, Fauci said, the new strains stressed the need to eradicate the disease as soon as possible with an effective vaccination program. He said there are “alternative plans” if the need to modify the vaccine ever arises.
“This is not something that is very burdensome,” Fauci said. “But at the moment, it appears from the reports we literally have from today, that the vaccines will still be effective against it, with the proviso that you want to pay attention to it.”
Fauci said he had not yet seen evidence that the tensions being monitored in South Africa had moved to the United States, but acknowledged that the ‘level of comprehensive sequence monitoring’ had not yet reached the level we would did not want. we are going to look for it very, very carefully. ‘
Fauci’s remarks come on the second day of Joe Biden’s presidency, which indicated that coronaviruses are the top priority. Biden plans to vaccinate 100 million Americans within the first 100 days of his term – a plan that Fauci said is a ‘reasonable goal’. Fauci also stood by his earlier predictions that a critical mass of the country could be vaccinated by the middle of the year.