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A growing body of evidence suggests that the Covid-19 vaccine may slow the spread of the coronavirus, Dr Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday.
Whether vaccination can prevent transmission of the virus is “the looming question,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a team briefing at White House coronavirus response. “If a person is infected while they have been vaccinated – we call it a ‘breakthrough’ infection – does that person have the capacity to spread to another person?”
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“There have been studies that point in a very favorable direction,” he said, adding that these studies will need to be corroborated by further research.
Fauci highlighted two recent studies looking at a person’s viral load – that is, how much virus they have in the body – and transmissibility.
A study from Spain, published Feb. 2 in The Lancet, found a direct correlation between viral load and transmissibility. The higher the viral load, the higher the transmissibility of the virus.
This is in line with what years of HIV research have shown: There is a direct link between the viral load in a person’s blood and the likelihood of a person transmitting HIV to a sexual partner, Fauci said.
For SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, researchers are focusing on the amount of virus found in the nasopharynx, the upper part of the throat behind the nose that is reached with a long, lean swab.
The second study Fauci described – an unpaired article that was published last week on the medRvix preprint server – looked at coronavirus infections in Israel, a country with very high vaccination rates.
This article found that people infected after receiving their first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination had a “markedly reduced” viral load compared to unvaccinated people.
This is another example of “scientific data starting to show that [the vaccine] … Has very important implications from a public health point of view to interfere and decrease the dynamics of the epidemic, ”said Fauci.
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Dr John Anthony Vanchiere, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport in Louisiana, said the two studies “go well together.”
“We know this is the case with influenza and other respiratory viruses that a higher viral load is associated with increased transmission,” he said. “The fact that the vaccine lowers the viral load, even soon after receiving your first dose, is very important. Data to have.”
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are currently studying how vaccination affects communicability, Fauci said.
“The final message,” he said, is “when your turn to get the vaccine comes, get the shot. It’s not only good for you and your family and your community, it will have a great impact. important on the dynamics of the epidemic in our country. “
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Akshay Syal contributed.
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