Biden's incoming CDC director says she's 'optimistic' Covid vaccines will work against new variants - CNBC
The coronavirus vaccines currently on the market should still work against new, more infectious variants discovered in recent months, although they may not be as effective, the incoming director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.
The currently deployed vaccines have proven to be so effective in clinical trials, the new variants likely won't make them completely ineffective, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, President-elect Joe Biden's pick to lead the CDC, told the JAMA Network.Although the new virus strains appear to spread more easily, they don't appear to make infected people sicker or increase someone's chances of death, global health experts have said.Enhanced surveillance of the mutations, combined with greater compliance with public health measures, like mask wearing, hand washing and physical distancing, could help slow the virus's spread, researchers said.relies on a patchwork of academic, commercial and public health laboratories to track the variants?
can track strains that "may be coming initially from countries abroad and those that might be emanating from our own country," Walensky said