THE New York Covid variant could potentially beat the vaccine and people who have already had the virus, former FDA head Dr. Scott Gottlieb has warned.
Speaking to CBS’ Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation,” the former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner said that it is not known whether the variant known as B.1.526 has caused an increase in cases in New York.
He said: “What we don’t understand with 1.526 is whether or not people are being re-infected with it and whether or not people who might have been vaccinated are now getting infected with it.
“One of the concerns about this particular variant is that it has that mutation that’s also in the South African variant, in the B.1.351 variant, that we know in certain cases is causing people who have already had coronavirus to get reinfected with it.
“The question is whether 1.526 is responsible for some of the increases that we’re seeing in New York right now and whether this is the beginning of a new outbreak inside the city.
“We are just not very good right now at collecting the cases, and linking it back to the clinical experience so we need to step in much more aggressively and start sequencing cases, especially people who report they’re either previously vaccinated or already had Covid.”
New York recorded more than 8000 new cases on Sunday while the total number of deaths is 49,699.
39,505 new cases were recorded in the US on Sunday while in total 541,907 people have died from the virus.
During an interview with MSNBC’s Christ Hayes on Friday, infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci warned Americans against “declaring a Covid victory prematurely.”
In the past few weeks, Covid cases across the US have been flattening out at around 55,000 per day, prompting some to believe the end of the pandemic is near, considering the vaccine rollout continues as well.
But Dr Fauci has warned there could still be another spike in the number of cases.
“Instead of continuing to go down at a sharp line it’s plateaued. Once it’s done that, there’s a high risk of another resurgence. We’ve seen that with previous surges.
“The other three [surges] that we’ve had in this country.
“Don’t declare victory prematurely. We still have a ways to go, plateauing at 50,000 cases a day is not a good place to be.
“And that’s where we are. We’ve got to keep pushing to get it down even further.”
As a number of European countries have been plunged back into lockdown, Fauci fears the US may follow.
He continued by calling on Americans to redouble their efforts on safety issues such as mask-wearing and maintaining social distancing.
Since the coronavirus outbreak 29.7million Americans have tested positive for Covid-19.
In total 541,907 people in the US have died from the virus.
The death rate has decreased since the country recorded record highs at the start of the year, though.
Reports indicate Americans are feeling increasingly optimistic as the rollout of the vaccine has increased in efficiency.
According to the CDC, 44.1 million Americans have now been vaccinated.
In addition, 81.4 million have received their first dose of the vaccine.
