Chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that the new “Mu” coronavirus variant is not considered “an immediate threat” to the United States in the wake of the World Health Organization (WHO) announcing that it will monitor the illness.
A transcript is as follows:
REPORTER: I wanted to ask about the new variant of concern identified on Tuesday by the WHO, called the Mu variant, which some people are saying is more resistant to vaccines than other variants so far. Just wanted to see if that’s something you guys are concerned about, have any plans should that start to spread in the U.S., and whether you think Biden getting booster shots out there reduces the risk?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI: We’re certainly aware of the Mu variant, we’re keeping a very close eye on it. It is rarely seen here, but it not at all being dominant. As you know, the Delta is 99 percent dominant, even thought it is not in the essence taken hold of in any extent here. We always pay attention to, at all times, variants, This variant has a constellation of mutations that suggest it would evade certain antibodies, not only monoclonal antibodies, but vaccine and convalescent serum induced antibodies. But there isn’t a lot of clinical data to suggest that. It’s mostly laboratory in vitro data. Not to down play it, we take it very seriously, but remember, even when you have variants that do diminish somewhat the efficacy of a vaccine, the vaccines are still quite effective against variants of that type. Bottom line: we’re paying attention to it, we take everything like that seriously, but we don’t consider it an immediate threat right now.