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Dr Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert in the United States, said he believed a new, more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus first detected in the UK was also more virulent.
When British scientists first studied the mutation “intensively” on a case-by-case basis, Fauci said they initially thought the variant was more transmissible but not necessarily more likely to cause serious illness or death.
“When they went and got more gradual and looked at the data, they became convinced that it was actually a little bit more virulent, which is what made it harder when you got to the point of severe illness and even of death. So I believe their data. Haven’t seen any of this, but from what I’ve heard I believe the data, “said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told the chief presenter from ABC News George Stephanopoulos in an interview Monday on “Good Morning America. “
ABC News has learned that US President Joe Biden is planning to impose a ban on most non-US citizens from entering the country who have recently been in South Africa, as well as reinstating an entry ban on nearly all non-US citizens of Brazil, Ireland UK and 26 other European countries who allow crossing open borders. The move comes as a new, more contagious variant of the novel coronavirus has emerged in South Africa, Brazil and the UK Some researchers fear the mutations could reduce the potency of the two COVID-19 vaccines currently in use in the United States. United.
Fauci, who is Biden’s chief medical adviser, said he believed the South Africa travel ban was “prudent” and “the right decision”, although he admitted “there always has a possibility and even a probability of slippage “.
“Right now, while our surveillance is not as comprehensive as we would like, it doesn’t appear that this particular mutant is in the United States – although it could be,” he said. declared. “But if you have a free influx of people from a country where this mutant is clearly dominant – I often talk to my colleagues in South Africa, he is clearly dominant there – I think the travel ban will be important, in addition to a situation where anyone who comes to the country is going to have to take a negative test before even getting on the plane, when they land to have some degree of quarantine as well as another test.
Fauci expressed hope that vaccine shortages and delays in many communities across the United States will be remedied “within a very reasonable time,” while warning, “it will take a little while.”
“We have to do everything,” he says. “We have to go into the trenches and understand exactly at this local level what is going on and how to fix it.”
He said “getting the vaccine situation back on track” was Biden’s “top priority”.
“The president said it publicly, but in a private meeting, just by sitting down with him and with the medical team, he’s very serious. He said, ‘Science is going to rule. We will stick to the facts. We will rely on the evidence. We will rely on the data, ”recalls Fauci. “So the idea of the president himself sitting down with you, saying, ‘I want science to rule, to go out there and do whatever we need to do to make it happen,’ is really very refreshing. “
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