In a Friday interview, Dr. Anthony Fauci revealed that American and South African health officials are set to discuss the new Covid variant’s threats and characteristics after the World Health Organization recommended countries tighten preventive measures.
“This is really something that’s in motion and we just arranged right now discussion between our scientists and the South African scientists, a little bit later in the morning to really get the facts – because you’re hearing a lot of things back and forth,” he said.
Fauci said that the key topics in the expected discussions will be whether the new B.1.1.529 variant can evade antibodies and how fast it infects new patients.
When asked if the new “heavily mutated” variant was already in the US, Fauci replied that “anything is possible.”
“There were some cases that originated in South Africa and that went to Botswana and people who traveled and found out they were infected and one that had gone, actually, to Hong Kong. So there’s a lot of travel,” the expert said.
“You never know exactly where, and that’s the reason why we’re getting together with them to try and get the precise molecular makeup of it, so you could actually test for it.”
