This variant of covid-19 worries in the US 2:30
(CNN) -
With the odds against the U.S. reaching the target of 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4 - a goal set by President Joe Biden - a vaccine expert said that Time is running out to anticipate the possible spread of covid-19 variants.
"Vaccines are our only way out," Dr. Paul Offit told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
"Unless we vaccinate a significant percentage of the population before winter sets in, we will see more spread and the creation of more variants, which will only make this task more difficult."
The number of COVID-19 cases and infections has decreased, Offit said.
But with hundreds of people dying and at least 10,000 people infected most days, the rates are still too high to prevent the summer calm from turning into a winter surge, he said.
CNN ANALYSIS |
Where vaccination increases, covid-19 cases decrease
Experts have warned that the continued spread of the virus could lead to more numerous, potentially more transmissible and dangerous variants.
The US has already seen surges in highly transmissible alpha and delta variants, while the spread of the gamma variant is growing in several states.
To achieve herd immunity, or the point where the virus cannot easily spread within the community, experts have offered estimates that require inoculation by infection or vaccination of 70-85% of the population.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only 53% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine.
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And only 65% of adults have received at least one dose.
"At the beginning of this you would have thought, knowing that vaccines are our only way to fight the pandemic, the hardest part would have been figuring out how to develop these vaccines," said Offit, a key member of the FDA's Vaccine Advisory Committee.
"The hardest thing is to convince people to do it, which is extraordinary."
Variants should encourage people to get vaccinated, experts say
The spread of variants should not be a concern for those who are vaccinated, Dr. Anthony Fauci told NPR, but it should be an incentive to get vaccinated.
The CDC raised the delta variant to the category of variant of concern this week.
Fauci said that "the combination of increased transmissibility and greater severity of the disease led the CDC, appropriately, to elevate it to a variant of concern."
When asked how concerned he was about the variant, Fauci replied, “I am not concerned about people who are vaccinated.
Because the good news in all this, among the seriousness of the situation with respect to the variant, is that the vaccines work quite well.
People who are vaccinated are protected, "which is another very good reason to encourage people to get vaccinated because if they don't get vaccinated, they run the risk of being infected with a virus that now spreads more quickly and causes more disease. serious, "said the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Experts and officials are pressuring people who are still hesitant to receive the vaccines and help curb the spread.
What do we do if a critical percentage of this population chooses not to get vaccinated and chooses to allow this virus to continue to spread, continue to harm themselves and others, and continue to create variants that become even more contagious and even more difficult to contain ? ”Said Offit.
China is about to reach 1 billion vaccines against covid-19 applied.
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Vaccine protection could last a year, or much longer
Fortunately, the protection offered by vaccines appears to be very strong, Offit said.
"Although immunity may be weakened for protection against mild illness or asymptomatic infection or mild to moderate illness, I think that protection against critical illness will likely be relatively long-lasting, that is, for a few years," he said.
"The so-called cellular immune response induced by these vaccines appears to be excellent."
But experts can only trust six months of data, since the vaccines are so new.
And scientists still can't say for sure how long the protection will last.
Its durability will determine whether the population will need reinforcements, Fauci said.
“I want to emphasize, by durability, I do not mean that vaccines are not effective now.
We are talking about the duration of protection, which we know is very high at the moment, ”said Fauci, who is also Biden's chief medical adviser.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) are watching for an increase in 'disruptive' infections - defined as infections in vaccinated people - but scientists hope to recognize the issue before it becomes a problem.
The NIH is currently conducting clinical trials of the covid-19 vaccine with boosters against the parent strains, as well as boosters that target the variants.
Experts will have to monitor COVID-19 infections to determine how long people can go without further immunizations, Fauci said.
“That could be a year, that could be 18 months, that could be much more.
We are going to follow up and act in accordance with the information we obtain, "he said.
CNN's Virginia Langmaid, Naomi Thomas, and Jen Christensen contributed to this report.
Covid-19