Variants of covid-19, the challenge for vaccines 2:12
(CNN) -
The covid-19 variant first identified in the United Kingdom is spreading in the United States and could become dominant as the country races to deliver vaccines, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday.
"It appears to be very efficient at being spread from person to person," the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN's Chris Cuomo.
Fauci added that recent studies show it could be more deadly and cause more serious illness.
Of the more than 26.6 million cases of coronavirus that have been recorded in the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, so far there have been at least 618 cases of variants in 33 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Disease Prevention of the United States (CDC, for its acronym in English).
The appearance of these virus variants, detected for the first time in the United Kingdom (B.1,1.7), South Africa (B.1,351) and Brazil (P.1), respectively, could mean another increase in cases, according to Dr. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Policy and Research at the University of Minnesota.
The United States just surpassed 25 million cases of covid-19.
Now it's a race between vaccines and variants
Covid-19: there are more than 4,000 variants in the world, according to the United Kingdom 0:56
The UK variant is already on its way to becoming dominant in hotspots like Florida and Southern California "in a few weeks," according to a testing company called Helix, which has helped identify the largest proportion of cases in the United States. United.
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The only way to prevent the variants from becoming dominant is to prevent them from spreading from person to person by following public health measures and vaccinating as many people as quickly as possible, Fauci said.
Fauci tweeted on Thursday his hope that the data will support coronavirus vaccines for older children in late spring or early summer.
And the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Thursday it plans to use the process to update flu vaccines as a template to authorize any changes to coronavirus vaccines to address the appearance of new variants.
"We have the ability and the ability to try to prevent [the variants] from becoming dominant," Fauci said.
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How quickly the variants spread versus the speed of vaccines will be a key factor in the number of deaths from coronavirus in the coming months, according to the latest forecast from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. .
Depending on the balance, up to another 190,000 people could die between February and June 1, bringing the total death toll from 455,733 today to more than 630,000 by then.
New coronavirus vaccines added to the market could help speed up the inoculation process.
The biotech company Novavax announced Thursday that the "ongoing review" process for the authorization of its covid-19 vaccine is underway in several countries.
The vaccine manufacturer announced that it has started the process with various regulatory agencies, including the US FDA, the European Medicines Agency, the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and Health Canada.
Ongoing review means that the company will submit some completed sections of your authorization request instead of waiting until the entire request is complete.
And Johnson & Johnson officially asked the FDA on Thursday for an emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine.
The company has been developing a single-shot vaccine that it says could help reduce "the burden of disease for people around the world and end the pandemic," said Dr. Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson. , it's a statement.
The FDA will schedule a public meeting, and if the agency decides to authorize the vaccine, the CDC's Committee on Immunization Practices will meet to discuss whether the vaccine should be given to Americans and, if so, who should get it first.
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The drive to vaccinate teachers and return to face-to-face classes
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As some students approach nearly a year since they last set foot in their classrooms, officials have been eager to see a return to learning in person.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky has said that with physical distancing, wearing masks and proper testing, schools can safely resume in person even before teachers are vaccinated.
But many states are prioritizing vaccinating teachers.
So far, 24 states and Washington are allowing some teachers or school personnel to receive the vaccine.
In West Virginia, all teachers over 50 who said they wanted the vaccine have already received it, according to Gov. Jim Justice.
In Ohio, Gov. Mike DeWine has established a plan for all teachers to be vaccinated by the end of February, with the goal of getting all students back to classrooms by March 1.
Alabama and Colorado will include teachers among those who can be vaccinated beginning February 8.
But dose availability still poses a problem in many states, as officials have complained that their dose allocation is not meeting demand.
In some cities, such as Chicago and Minneapolis, officials are at odds with teacher unions and schools as their push to reopen is met with concerns for the safety of staff, students and families.
In some cases, the tensions have turned into demands and threats to strike.
Fauci promotes two doses of vaccines for those previously infected
Separately, Fauci said Thursday that even those who have already had COVID-19 should get vaccinated.
"If you had covid-19, you still need to get vaccinated.
Because reinfection is rare 90 days after initial infection, you can delay vaccination until the end of that 90-day period, if you wish.
But vaccination is still safe after you have recovered from covid-19, "he said in a tweet.
Fauci rejected a study earlier in the week that suggested that people who had previously been infected with coronavirus may need only one injection of the covid-19 vaccine.
The authors of this pre-printed study, which has not been peer-reviewed, argued that changing the policy to give these people only one dose "would save them unnecessary pain and release many doses of urgently needed vaccines."
A previous infection can help initiate vaccination, Fauci tweeted, but there is not enough evidence yet to show that it is enough to compare it to two doses for most people.
"People who had covid-19 should follow the current @FDA guidance," he said.
- CNN's Michael Nedelman, Maggie Fox, Andrea Diaz, Jacqueline Howard, Yon Pomrenze, Evan Simko-Bednarski, Elizabeth Stuart and Naomi Thomas contributed to this report.
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