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Dr Anthony Fauci said on Thursday that available COVID-19 vaccines appeared to be less effective against new strains of the coronavirus, CNBC reports.
What happened
Fauci, the White House health adviser, said on Thursday that the new COVID-19 vaccines available – especially the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – offer help against new COVID-19 mutations emerging around the world. But there are still concerns.
- “We are following very closely the one in South Africa, which is a little more worrying, but nonetheless not something that we don’t think we can handle,” Fauci said, per CNBC.
Fauci said mutations often occur among viruses. But mutations can be overcome if enough people get vaccinated, according to CNBC.
- “Viruses don’t mutate unless they replicate themselves,” said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, according to CNN.
- “And if you can suppress that with a really good vaccination campaign, then you could actually avoid this deleterious effect that you could get from mutations,” Fauci said, according to CNN.
- “Bottom line: we pay great attention to it. There are alternative plans if we ever need to change the vaccine. It’s not something very expensive, we can do it given the platforms we have, ”Fauci said, according to CNBC.
What vaccine developers are saying
Pfizer-BioNTech published the results of a new study earlier this week that examined whether or not their COVID-19 vaccine could defeat the new variant in the UK.
- The research – posted on bioRxiv – showed “no biologically significant difference in neutralizing activity,” as I wrote for Deseret News. This means that the COVID-19 variant has not changed enough characteristics to escape the vaccine.
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