UPDATE: Fauci says vaccines offer protection against new, more infectious COVID variants

Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical officer to President Joe Biden, said on Wednesday that vaccines that have received emergency use clearance to treat COVID-19 protect against new, more infectious variants of the virus. Speaking at a regular press briefing, Fauci said there are two mechanisms for protecting against variants; high antibody titer and T cell response. Fauci cited an article published on Tuesday and showed that people who have been vaccinated have a T cell memory response against variants and not just against the virus against which they have been vaccinated. “In their study of recovered COVID-19 patients, the researchers determined that SARS-CoV-2-specific CD8 + T-cell responses remained largely intact and could recognize virtually all mutations in the variants studied,” said stated the article, written by a research team led by Andrew Redd, Ph.D. of NIAID, and comprising scientists from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the specialized society in immunomics, ImmunoScape. “Although larger studies are needed, the researchers note that their results suggest that the T-cell response in recovering people, and most likely in vaccinated people, is largely unaffected by the mutations found in these. three variants, and should offer protection against emerging variants, “the newspaper said. Fauci also said that the problem with blood clotting that has been reported in some cases from people who received the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca PLC AZN,
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and Oxford University are on par with the general population. The White House coronavirus team has reiterated that it is ramping up the country’s vaccination campaign and now expects 90% of U.S. adults to be eligible for a vaccine by April 19, ahead of an earlier goal of may’s beginning. “We are facing an accelerating threat and we are accelerating the response even further,” said Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser on COVID-19 response. President Joe Biden is asking governors, mayors and local leaders in return to maintain or reinstate face mask mandates, he said.