Fauci: ‘We must now assume’ that British virus strain ‘can cause more damage’

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Anthony FauciAnthony FauciAstraZeneca vaccine distribution begins in Brazil Biden and UK Prime Minister discuss NATO multilateralism on Sunday call shows preview: All eyes on Biden administration to tackle coronavirus MORE, the country’s top infectious disease expert, said recent data reported by the UK government suggests a new, more virulent form of the coronavirus is also more deadly, but US officials should investigate the numbers themselves.

Asked by CBS’s Margaret Brennan about his earlier claims that the species, while more contagious, was apparently not more deadly, Fauci said, “The data that came out was after saying it didn’t seem more deadly all along. So that’s where we got that information. “

“When the British researchers took a closer look at the death rate for a particular age group, they found it was one in a thousand… and then it went up to 1.3 per thousand in a particular group,” added Fauci. “That is a significant increase. So the most recent data is in line with what the British say. We want to see the data ourselves, but we have every reason to believe it. They are a very competent group. “

Fauci went on to say that Americans “must now assume that what is dominantly circulating in the UK has some increase in what we call virulence, namely the virus’ power to do more damage, including death.”

Fauci spoke separately of another species believed to be native to South Africa, saying, “in some cases [the strain] reduces the effectiveness of the vaccine ”, but the vaccine was still generally effective.

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