Dr. Fauci predicts what the worst-case scenario could be this year for the COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House medical adviser on the coronavirus, said worst-case scenario would involve a new variant.
Vaccination gap could lead to a new variant
Will there really be another variant?
The worst-case scenario for 2022 would be a COVID-19 variant that can evade vaccines and natural immunity. Fauci says he hopes this is not the case. Read more bout it here.
Fauci said, “The worst-case scenario is we’re on our way there and we get hit with another variant that actually eludes the immune protection.”
Although the Omicron variant can evade vaccines to an extent, the vaccine prevents increased severity from the illness. Immunity and vaccination may stop the worst-case scenario.
He also claims, “The thing that makes it less likely, but not impossible, is that by that time, you will have so many people vaccinated and already infected, that you might have a level of community protection that may not get you away from the next variant, but would protect you from the severity of the next variant.”
Is Dr. Fauci the only one who thinks there might be a worst-case scenario?
Dr. Mark Dybul, a professor at Georgetown University Medical Center’s Department of Medicine and immunologist has concerns too.
Based on virus trends of the last two years, he expects to see a vaccine-resistant variant by spring 2022.
Dybul said, “There’s simply no way you can have such low rates of vaccination around the world with the virus ping-ponging between vaccinated and unvaccinated people.”
Unfortunately, he believes that “the probability of us seeing a vaccine-resistant strain is very high.”
Vaccinations are the best way to stay safe from emerging variants.
BA.2 the Omicron subvariant isn’t reason to panic
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