Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that new variants of the coronavirus that were originally found in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil – and have been since identified in the United States – is expected to persist and eventually overcome cases of previous strain of the virus.
“We will continue to see the evolution of mutants,” Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said in a news briefing on Friday.
variant first identified in the UK It has now been found in 29 states, according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Highly contagious variants first identified in South Africa and Brazil were also found in the state.
Fauci said vaccinating “as many people as possible, as fast as we can” is the best defense against the new variants. “The virus has a playing field to move,” he said, explaining that the virus cannot move if it is not given a chance to replicate.
“The virus will continue to move and will move for its own selective advantage,” he said. If COVID-19 is spread in a community, it is only a matter of time before the virus moves, because it is given a wide “opportunity to adapt.”
A newly identified strain of coronavirus prevalent in Southern California could be behind the drastic peak in cases in the region. A study published on January 18 found that more than a third of recent COVID-19 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles were infected with the strain, according to a statement summarizing its findings.
“The fact is that when you have a virus that has the ability to transmit more efficiently than the wild type in the community, sooner or later, through pure viral dynamics, it will become more dominant than the wild type,” Fauci said.
The variants are likely to affect other US cities, according to Fauci, but sequencing efforts are not in place to identify them all. Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the COVID-19 White House response team, has again called on Congress to pass President Biden American rescue plan so the federal government can expand sequencing along with other strategies to stifle the pandemic.
“We should treat each case as if it were a variant,” Walensky said, noting that “until someone has symptoms, has a test, has a positive result, and we get the sequence, our opportunity to have real control.” case and tracking of contacts has largely disappeared. “
Fauci said federal officials are concerned about a number of variations, most notably the first-identified mutation in the UK, which has been shown to transmit more easily than the original COVID-19 strain. This characteristic, he said, means that his domination is inevitable. Current projections show that the variant “will become more dominant than the wild type” by March or April, he said.
“The fundamental principle of vaccinating people as quickly and efficiently as possible is always the best way to prevent the further evolution of any mutant. Because when you do this, you prevent replication, and replication is essential for mutation.”
In addition to vaccinating as many people as possible with current Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Fauci said federal health officials and vaccine companies will need to remain “agile” to produce versions that target variants.
“We, as a government, companies, all of us who are together, will have to be agile to easily adapt to make versions of the vaccine, which are, in fact, specifically targeted to any mutation that is actually prevalent in at some point, ”he said. said.
There have been concerns in recent weeks that vaccines may be less effective against some variants, especially the highly transmissible version of South Africa.
U.S. biotechnology firm Novavax said Thursday that its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine showed an overall efficacy of 89.3% in a major Phase 3 clinical trial in the UK it remained extremely effective against a variant first identified there. Other results showed that it offers less protection against the variant identified in South Africa, but both the company and an external health expert were still optimistic about the level of protection offered against both new strains.
Fauci also discussed the new results on Friday Johnson & Johnson vaccination tests, which demonstrated an overall effectiveness of 66% and 72% in the United States. He acknowledged that the results might seem less impressive compared to the greater overall effectiveness of Pfizer and Moderna, but stressed that the vaccine has other benefits, namely its impact on severe diseases and the ease of delivering its single dose.
“In the United States, South Africa and Brazil, the overall effectiveness of severe diseases was 85%. And, in fact, in the study that included the South African isolate, there were essentially no hospitalizations or deaths in the vaccine group, while in the placebo group there was, “Fauci said. So this really tells us that we now have an additional candidate with added value to the vaccine.
“This has real important and potential implications internally and globally, because … this is a one-shot vaccine which you start to see effective 7 to 10 days after the first and only shot, “Fauci said. It can be stored in a regular refrigerator, it’s cheap, and the company is” capable of making billions in doses. “
The information came a day after Fauci said President Joe Biden’s effort to reopen most schools within 100 days “may not happen”. In an interview with the American Federation of Teachers and the National Association for Education on Thursday, Fauci expressed caution about Mr. Biden’s goal.
“This may not happen because there may be mitigating circumstances,” Fauci said.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday reiterated Mr. Biden’s support for a $ 1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package to be adopted in Congress and said the White House is not interested in dividing the bill into smaller portions. Some Republicans have opposed the price for the bill and it is unclear whether it will be able to get GOP votes.
Psaki said Mr. Biden addressed both Republicans and Democratic members of Congress to discuss coronavirus aid.