Fauci says US 'rushing' to get data on new COVID-19 variant [View all]

Source: The Hill

Top infectious diseases expert Anthony Fauci said Friday that the U.S. is "rushing" to get data on the new COVID-19 variant, which was stoked alarm after being discovered in South Africa earlier this week.

Fauci said U.S. and South African scientists will have a meeting Friday to get more information about the new strain and the molecular makeup so the U.S. can test for the variant, called B.1.1529.

"Right now, we're getting the material together with our South African colleagues to get a situation where you could actually directly test it. So, right now you're talking about sort of like a red flag that this might be an issue - but we don't know," Fauci said in an interview on CNN.

Scientists say the variant has a larger number of mutations than previous strains, and it is not clear how effective the coronavirus vaccines will be against the variant.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/fauci-says-us-rushing-to-get-data-on-new-covid-19-variant/ar-AARaHkE?li=BBnbfcQ