White House Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci gives his opening statement before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions hearing on “Next Steps: The Road Ahead for the COVID-19 Response” on Capitol Hill in Washington, November 4, 2021.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters
Will talk Friday with scientists from South Africa to “get the facts” on the emerging, heavily mutated covid-19 variant detected there in a small number of samples, White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN’s “New Day. “
Reviewing South Africa’s research will help the US. It. Better understand whether the novel B.1.1.529 variant can evade the antibody protection against the virus provided by vaccines and previous infection, Fauci said. With countries across Europe and Asia imposing travel restrictions on several nations in South Africa, Fauci added that analyzing the data could help determine whether similar measures might also be necessary in the US.
“This is really something that is in motion,” Fauci said. “And we just arranged, right now, a discussion between our scientists and the South African scientists a little later in the morning to really get the facts because you hear a lot of things back and forth.”
Fauci emphasized that the United States is in “very active communication” with South African scientists, and is working to obtain the molecular makeup of the variant in order to conduct lab tests.
The new strain has now been discovered in a growing number of countries, including Belgium, Botswana and Israel. Fauci said there was “no indication” that B.1.1.529 had reached the US.
B.1.1.529 contains even more mutations than the world’s most dominant covid strain, the highly transmissible delta variant. The variant features approximately 50 mutations, according to data presented by scientist Tulio de Oliveira at a briefing hosted by the South Africa Department of Health on Thursday. This includes more than 30 mutations to the spike protein that allows covid to enter cells and 10 to the receptor binding field that first contacts cells.
Comparatively, the delta strain has only two mutations to the receptor binding domain.
Some of the mutations found in B.1.1.529 are associated with improved antibody resistance and may lower the barrier offered by Covid vaccines, according to de Oliveira’s presentation at the briefing. Certain mutations could lead to a greater contagion, while others have never been reported until now, he noted.
World Health Organization officials on Thursday said B.1.1.529 contained a large number of mutations, but was only detected in small numbers across South Africa. The organization announced a special meeting for Friday to discuss the potential implications of the variant on covid vaccines and treatments.
The WHO’s virus evolution working group will also choose to evaluate whether to call this strain a variant of concern, a designation for mutations that are more contagious and more viral, and which can better avoid vaccines and therapies.
Fauci said that the 27 member states of the European Union had together on Friday agreed to pause travel from South Africa, and the UK had suspended flights from six countries in the region.
In Asia, Singapore has banned flights from South Africa, while Japan has heightened its border controls for anyone coming from the region.
“You are willing to do everything you need to do to protect the American public, but you want to make sure there is a basis to do so,” Fauci said. “And that’s what we’re doing now.”
Correction: South Africa’s Department of Health held a briefing on the B.1.1.529 on Thursday. An earlier version had misunderstood the data.
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