Fauci: New Covid strains increase need for fast vaccination scheme

New variants of the coronavirus may make vaccines less effective against the disease, making it even more urgent to quickly inoculate the country and beat back the pandemic, Anthony Fauci said Thursday.

Speaking at a White House news briefing, the government's top infectious disease expert warned that strains first identified in South Africa and Brazil could reduce the potency of the two vaccines now in use. Fauci cited studies published online this week that have not yet been peer-reviewed, and said it would be important to monitor the mutations going forward.

Fauci emphasized, however, that existing vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna showed initial efficacy of roughly 95 percent — far greater than is needed to beat the pandemic. Even if the new variants reduce the vaccines' potency they will still likely offer strong protection against infection, he said.

Another variant first spotted in the U.K. appears to make the virus more transmissible, the scientist said, which could overload U.S. hospitals if it becomes widespread here. So far roughly 20 states have detected the U.K. variant.

Taken together, Fauci said, the new strains highlight the need to quash the disease with an effective vaccine program as soon as possible. He said there are "alternative plans" if the need to modify the vaccine ever came up.

"That is not something that is a very onerous thing," Fauci said. "But right now, from the reports we have literally as of today, it appears that the vaccines will still be effective against them, with the caveat in mind you want to pay close attention to it."

Fauci said he has not seen evidence the strain under watch in South Africa has made its way to the United States, but he admitted the "level of comprehensive sequence surveillance, thus far, is not at the level that we would have liked. So we're going to be looking very, very carefully for it."

Fauci's comments come on the second day of the presidency of Joe Biden, who has signaled tackling the coronaviurs as his most pressing priority. Biden plans to vaccinate 100 million Americans within the first 100 days of his term — a plan Fauci said is a "reasonable goal." Fauci also stood by his earlier predictions that a critical mass of the country could be vaccinated by the middle of the year.