Federal health authorities are preparing for the possibility that current COVID-19 vaccines may not be effective against future strains of the coronavirus, Anthony Fauci
Anthony Fauci Overnight Health Care: Biden Takes Steps to Increase Vaccine Doses Sent to States CDC Investigators Find “Little Evidence” of Major School Outbreaks, with Precautions | Eli Lilly says antibody combination significantly reduces COVID-19 mortality risk Biden is taking steps to increase number of vaccine doses sent to states. Worldwide, 100 million cases of coronavirus exceed MORE said Wednesday, but he is confident that drug companies can quickly change the formula.
At an event hosted by The Hill, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the federally approved vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are effective against multiple strains identified so far.
Fauci noted that monoclonal antibody treatments aren’t necessarily that effective, but he’s not concerned about vaccines.
“We are preparing, waiting for the virus to continue to develop and reach the point where it crosses the threshold that our vaccine will no longer be effective as we want,” Fauci said.
“We don’t want it to happen. We hope it doesn’t. If it does, we’ll do whatever it takes to address it,” added Fauci.
Fauci said he is confident the country will have adequate supplies of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, especially if President Biden is able to get 100 million additional doses from each company, a move the president announced on Tuesday.
The calculations exclude Johnson & Johnson, a company Fauci said is “literally on the brink of” final safety and efficacy trial results.
There are currently three variants of the coronavirus affecting experts and health officials: the B.1.1.7 strain, which was discovered in the United Kingdom; B.1.351, found in South Africa; and P.1, which has become dominant in Brazil.
Fauci said the technology and science behind the vaccines are easily adaptable, so if they need to be updated, it can be done quickly.
“It will make it much easier for us to adapt to the mutants, the new lines that we see in South Africa, in the UK, in Brazil – the UK is already in 25 or more states,” says Fauci said.
So it’s likely that as we go further, although our vaccines look like they are still effective against the new lines as the virus evolves, we might need to quickly develop a booster that reflects the mutant circulating so we can use it. antibodies to protect, ”said Fauci.
Earlier Wednesday, Fauci said at a White House briefing that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will work with the National Institutes of Health to study the efficacy of the vaccines against new strains.
“We will monitor the effect of antibodies raised with current and future vaccines in real time to see what impact they have on the ability to neutralize these mutants,” Fauci said.
He added that as the vaccines start to become less effective, they will take actions such as “making a version of the same vaccine that will, in fact, target the relevant mutants”.
Fauci said it is “getting a bit more problematic” with the B.1.351 species that is dominant in South Africa.
But Fauci added that the vaccine is effective, and “it’s still well within the protective cushion.”
Despite some positive developments, Fauci told The Hill that there is still a long way to go, and that the US will not be able to approach “any measure of normalcy” until late fall.
“We have to be prepared that this is going to be an elusive virus, that we have to make some changes to our interventions, whatever they may be; an improved vaccine, several types of monoclonal antibodies,” Fauci said.
“So yes, there is light at the end of the tunnel, we will start to approach some degree of normalcy as we enter the late fall of this year as we enter winter. But we have to keep a close eye on it and our press it. Otherwise it could slip away from here. ”