The world needs to vaccinate quickly to try to get ahead of changes in the novel coronavirus, US infectious disease specialist Dr Anthony Fauci has said.
“You need to be ahead of these mutants (virus variants) and crush this outbreak so that there is no more replication. When there are no more replications, there are no new mutations,” he said during an interview with Steve Scott on the New York Press Club Speaker Series on Friday.
“Since this is a pandemic, it’s a global problem... If there is a lot of infection throughout the world, we have to pull together as a global community and make sure that vaccines become available all over the world, even in those countries that do not have the economic capability,” he added.
Dr Fauci, also chief medical adviser to US President Joe Biden, hoped that the world would be able to exert enough control on the virus to prevent it from being a seasonal cycle every year.
On vaccine safety, Dr Fauci said even though a recipient with a suppressed immune system may not get a robust response from the vaccine, there were no red flags yet in terms of safety concerns.
On the J&J one shot vaccine breakthrough, Dr Fauci said the vaccine proved to be 72% effective against moderate to severe Covid-19, which isn't as impressive as the 95% of Pfizer and Moderna.
"So, although it was not as good as a couple of the others in preventing early symptomatic disease, what it did do very well was prevent severe disease, including hospitalization, death," he said.
He also predicted that the vaccine would get emergency use authorization within a week or two, with doses possibly being administered in the US by the end of February.
He also informed that a fourth vaccine candidate, Novavax, is now also being trialed in the US after proving 89.3% effective in phase 3 trials in the UK.
Asked whether the mRNA vaccines are the future of vaccination, Fauci said mRNA is a brand new technology and, with its 95% efficacy, the technology will be used in vaccines for many other diseases in future, most likely for HIV, Malaria, Tuberculosis and even cancer.
When questioned about vaccine safety for pregnant and immunocompromised people, he said: “Well, right now they have not been tested in the clinical trials. So, being pregnant and knowing that you’re pregnant wasn’t an exclusion criteria for the trial.
“Since the EUA has been given, more than 10,000 pregnant women have gotten vaccinations and the FTA is following that. And there has been no red flags or safety concerns thus far,” he added.
“Regarding people who are immunosuppressed, there is no safety issue for them. But if you have a suppressed immune system, for one reason or other, you might not get as robust a response from the vaccine,” Dr Fauci said.
“If this were a live attenuated vaccine, then you might have a safety issue in an immunosuppressed person or in a pregnant woman, but it isn’t. Those kinds of safety issues are non existent when it comes to the two categories that you just mentioned,” he told the interviewer.
On some people taking ibuprofen or acetaminophen for arm pain after having vaccines, he said: “Theoretically, if you are on an immunosuppressive drug like a glucocorticoid steroid, that’s different than taking Tylenol if your arm hurts. I doubt if it’s going to make any major impact on the result of the vaccine.
Responding to a question on if it would be safe to reopen schools in the US now, he said the president has pledged to do so within his 100th day in office.
However, Dr Fauci laid emphasis on supplying proper safety resources to the schools, teachers and study teams.
Vaccinating teachers, he said, would be a priority.
Mentioning that the US has seen three surges in Covid-19 caseloads and fatalities, he said the numbers should go down soon.
On using two masks, Dr Fauci said it is common sense that one mask is safe and two is definitely safer. However, there is no scientific basis for wearing two masks at the same time.
For outdoors events or gatherings, he suggested wearing masks and maintaining social distancing to prevent the virus from spreading
When asked about his message for those complaining that many non-white people will not get the vaccines, Dr Fauci said their hesitance is based historically on things that were done and perpetrated upon brown and black people.
“But that (racism) is not going to repeat”, he said, promising vaccination for all living people in the US.
Dr Fauci went on to say that the safety of the vaccine was not determined by the US government, but by an independent monitoring board that was tasked with it.
“The entire process (to confirm the vaccine efficacy) is both independent and transparent,” he furthered.
When asked if he had ever planned to quit the Trump administration, he answered in the negative.
Dr Fauci vowed to continue his job as long as he can give his maximum effort.
