Dr. Scott Gottlieb warned that vaccinating Americans against Covid is more important than ever, especially since the new South African variant appears to be inhibiting antibody drugs.
“The South African variant is very worrying right now because it seems to be able to avoid some of our medical measures, especially antibody drugs,” the former FDA chief in the Trump administration said in an interview with CNBC. Shepard Smith “Tuesday night.” Right now this strain seems to be prevalent in South America and Brazil, the two parts of the world right now that are in their summer, but which are also facing a very dense epidemic. it is worrying.
The South African variant is also known as 501.V2, and in mid-December officials reported that 501.V2 had largely replaced other strains of the coronavirus since November. South Africa has already claimed more than 1.1 million COVID-19 cases and more than 30,000 deaths, most on the African continent.
Gottlieb cited experimental evidence from Bloom Lab, and explained that 501.V2 seems to partially get rid of the previous immunity. This means that some of the antibodies that people produce when they become infected with Covid, as well as antibody medicines, may not be as effective.
“The new variant moved some of the spike protein to which our antibodies bind to try to remove the virus itself, so this is worrying,” said Gottlieb. “Now, the vaccine can become a backstop against these variants, really becoming a fulcrum here in the United States, but we need to accelerate the pace of vaccination.”
Director of Operation Warp Speed for the production and distribution of supply Ret. Lt. Gen. Paul Ostrowski told host Shepard Smith on Dec. 3 that anyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one by June. However, the projections are currently short. More than 17 million doses of Covid were distributed to states, but only 4.8 million Americans received their first blow according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gottlieb suggested working faster through priority categories of people, expanding the number of vaccination sites and storing a lower percentage of doses to vaccinate more Americans.
“It’s really a race against time trying to bring more vaccine into people’s arms before these new variants become more prevalent here in the United States,” Gottlieb said.
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and a member of the boards of Pfizer, the Tempus genetic testing start-up and the biotechnology company Illumina. Pfizer has a manufacturing agreement with Gilead for remdesivir. Gottlieb is also co-chair of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings‘ and Royal Caribbean“The panel with healthy sails”.