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Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Work and Pensions at the Dirksen Senate office building in Washington, DC, United States, July 20, 2021.
Stefani Reynolds | Reuters
White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr Anthony Fauci has warned that a more serious variant of Covid could emerge as the daily average of new cases in the United States now approaches 100,000 per day, surpassing the level transmission last summer before vaccines became available.
Fauci, in an interview with McClatchy, said the United States could be “in trouble” if a new variant surpasses delta, which already has a viral load 1,000 times that of the original Covid strain.
Delta has turned the US response to the pandemic upside down because it has been shown to be able to infect even those who have been vaccinated. Moderna warned on Thursday that breakthrough infections will become more common as the delta variant continues to spread.
However, vaccines still offer strong protection against serious illness and death, and the overwhelming majority of new infections are in unvaccinated people. Moderna, for example, said Thursday that the boost to its development produced a robust immune response against delta.
Fauci warned in Wednesday’s interview that the United States is “very fortunate” to have vaccines that have resisted variants, suggesting that might not be the case if even more serious strains emerge.
“If another comes forward who has an equally high transmission capacity but is also much more serious, then we could really be in trouble,” Fauci told McClatchy in the interview, released Wednesday night. “People who do not get the vaccine mistakenly think it is theirs. But it is not. It affects everyone, too.”
The United States is reporting a seven-day average of nearly 94,000 new cases as of Aug. 4, up 48% from a week ago, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. In a measure separate from the average, the United States actually surpassed 100,000 new daily cases on Monday and Tuesday.
Fauci predicted that the total number of new cases could eventually reach “between 100,000 and 200,000 cases” per day as the delta variant spreads.
The recent wave of Covid hit unvaccinated people the most, and Fauci said there were around 93 million eligible and unvaccinated people left across the country.
In a series of interviews conducted by CNBC in July, several health officials echoed Fauci’s concerns about the emergence of a new variant. Dr Stephen Morse, professor of epidemiology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, said in an email that “the cycle of new variants continues to repeat itself as long as the virus infects people and circulates in the population, allowing the virus to evolve “. . “
“I would be very surprised if Delta were the last in the line,” said Morse.
And Dr. Barbara Taylor, dean and professor of infectious diseases at UT Health San Antonio, added that future variants “that increase transmission will have the benefit” of moving forward.
“As long as we have an active spread of the disease all over the world, we will continue to see new variants because we are giving the virus opportunities to evolve,” Taylor said in an email.
Although vaccinations are well below pandemic highs, the United States is reporting an average of around 677,000 daily vaccinations over the past week Wednesday, up 11% from a week ago, according to the reports. CDC data. The country peaked at a reported average of 3 million shots per day in mid-April, but the rate of first doses administered has increased in recent weeks, due to states with severe epidemics and low vaccination rates.
President Joe Biden said in May that he wanted 70% of the vaccine-eligible population to receive at least one dose of the vaccine by July 4. The United States hit its target on Monday, according to CDC data, about a month behind schedule.
CNBC Nate rattner contributed to this report.
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