WASHINGTON (Dispatches) - Coronavirus infections across U.S. are spiking due to the Delta variant, but an even worse version of the virus could be on the horizon if the country does not get a handle on the pandemic, Anthony Fauci has warned.
The director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, warned that more dangerous coronavirus variants could spawn if the U.S. does not greatly increase the number of people who are vaccinated.
“If we don’t crush the outbreak to the point of getting the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated, then what will happen is the virus will continue to shoulder through the fall into the winter, giving it ample chance to get a variant,” he told McClatchy.
“Quite frankly, we’re very lucky that the vaccines that we have now do very well against the variants, particularly against severe illness. We’re very fortunate that that’s the case. There could be a variant that’s lingering out there that can push aside Delta,” he added.
He said that the U.S. would “really be in trouble” if a variant with the same transmissibility as the Delta variant but with more severe symptoms were to emerge.
“People who are not getting vaccinated mistakenly think it’s only about them. But it isn’t. It’s about everybody else, also,” Dr Fauci said.
The doctor said that the latest spike in cases is the result of the Delta variant’s high transmissibility and the substantial number of people who still have not taken the vaccine.
Approximately half of all U.S. adults have been fully vaccinated, and 70 percent have taken at least one shot.
While CDC data suggests that less than one percent of people who have been vaccinated have experienced breakthrough infections, the agency still updated its guidance to recommend mask usage by fully vaccinated individuals while indoors if they live in regions with high transmission rates.