Fauci: 'Need to assume' UK variant is more deadly
"We need to assume now that what has been circulating dominantly in the UK does have a certain degree of increase in what we call virulence - namely the power of the virus to cause more damage, including death," Fauci told CBS's Face The Nation.
Fauci, who is President Joe Biden's top COVID-19 medical adviser, said he was somewhat more worried about a separate variant from South Africa, although it has not yet been identified among U.S. cases of the novel coronavirus.
Reuters reported exclusively on Sunday that Biden will impose a ban on most non-U.S. citizens entering the country who have recently been in South Africa starting Saturday in a bid to contain the spread of a new variant of COVID-19, according to a senior U.S. public health official.
