#muvariant

Digging Deep

In ways to expand our knowledge about COVID and what surrounds us, we looked at the top two topics that came up in the previous class - 

1. Fear Tactics - Have they worked to increase vaccine awareness? Are they effective in other scenarios? Can we look at them as Analogous Inspiration?

The new coronavirus variant “mu” isn’t at the moment posing a great risk to Americans, according to White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci.

“We’re paying attention to it, we take everything like that seriously, however we don’t consider it an immediate threat right now,” Fauci stated Thursday during a White House COVID response news briefing.

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Earlier this week, mu, known by scientists as B.1.621, was added to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “of interest” list of variants. The variant was first identified in Colombia and has been confirmed in at the least 39 countries, according to the WHO.

“This variant has a constellation of mutations that implies that it will evade certain antibodies, not solely monoclonal antibodies, however vaccine- and convalescent serum-induced antibodies,” Fauci stated. “But there isn’t a lot of clinical data to suggest that, it’s mostly laboratory in-vitro data.”

“Remember, even when you have variants that do diminish somewhat the efficacy of vaccines, the vaccines still are quite effective against variants of that time,” Fauci added in conclusion, telling Americans that health officials had been “keeping a very close eye” on what happens with mu.

Fauci additionally stated during the briefing that he “would not at all be surprised” if three doses of vaccine are required for Americans to be fully protected against the coronavirus.

“I have to say from my own experience as an immunologist, I would by no means be surprised that the adequate full regimen for vaccination will probably be three doses,” Fauci stated.