White House coronavirus testing czar Adm. Brett Giroir is seeking to encourage people that the COVID-19 vaccine candidates will be effective against other variants of COVID-19.
Giroir, the assistant secretary for Health, sought to tamp down fears over the new COVID-19 variant reported in the U.K. during Monday’s CNN “New Day” interview.
“We have every reason to believe that the vaccine will be effective against any variant that we’ve seen, including the new variant in the U.K.,” he said.
Giroir also said, “It is not any more lethal or any more dangerous than the normal coronavirus, no evidence to suggest that, no reason to believe it.” He noted that it has not been proven the variant is more transmissible.
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced over the weekend that there will be stricter coronavirus restrictions implemented and that there was a new variant of the coronavirus identified. It appears to be accelerating the spread of the virus, according to England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty.
Johnson, however, said, “There’s no evidence to suggest it is more lethal or causes more severe illness.”
It is regularly occurring that viruses mutate.
Watch the video below:
Adm. Brett Giroir, Asst Sec for Health, talks about the new COVID variant in the UK: "It is not any more lethal or any more dangerous than the normal coronavirus, no evidence to suggest that, no reason to believe it."
— The Recount (@therecount) December 21, 2020
Also no evidence that it will evade the vaccines we have. pic.twitter.com/uQRNnJ6P5f
Countries ban travel from UK after new variant of COVID-19 detected. @JamesAALongman reports. https://t.co/Ts06Y3qi7O pic.twitter.com/f9K1wjnTiu
— Good Morning America (@GMA) December 21, 2020
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner, also spoke about the announcement of the new variant found in the U.K.
See Gottlieb’s comments below:
"This is a mutation," says @ScottGottliebMD on new strain of COVID-19 discovered in the U.K. "We now think this is more transmissible– it doesn't seem to have mutated the surface proteins of the virus in a way that would slip past the vaccines or prior immunity." pic.twitter.com/zuO9b4H9eM
— CNBC (@CNBC) December 21, 2020
He told CNBC on Monday, “We now think this is more transmissible. It doesn’t seem to have mutated the surface proteins of the virus in a way that would slip past the vaccines or prior immunity.”