Dr. Anthony Fauci downplayed the dangers of coronavirus variants, even as health officials prepare for the possibility of those variants becoming the dominant strain in the United States.
Several new strains of the coronavirus have emerged in recent months, of which the South African variant is the most striking.
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The UK variant, B.1.1.7, has shown greater transmissibility, but the South African variant has shown to reduce the efficacy of current vaccines.
“Fortunately, that’s not at all dominant in this country,” Fauci told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. “The fact is, though, it doesn’t protect, the vaccines don’t protect that well against contracting a clinically apparent disease in the South African.”
Fauci advised that some models predict the British variant to be dominant by the end of March, but current vaccines are still just as effective against that particular variant.
“If this does indeed become more dominant, we may need to get a version of the vaccine that targets the South African isolate,” added Fauci. “And in fact, we’re already doing preliminary and early experiments to develop such a variant of the vaccine to target that particular mutation.”
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The new variants pose a potential challenge as the debate about reopening schools continues. The CDC continues to say that teachers should be a priority when receiving vaccines, but that teachers should not be vaccinated in order to teach face-to-face again.
“We are doing what we can to protect the safety of the students and the teachers, but it is not a requirement,” Fauci said on the topic.
One of the main goals will be to vaccinate high school students, with vaccines approved for Americans 16 and older. Nearly half of high school students are potentially just as vulnerable to infections as adults.
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Fauci said the plan is for high school students to receive the vaccine later this year so they can resume full personal education.
“That will probably happen in the fall,” Fauci said.