Fauci urges more vaccinations, saying omicron variant is likely more contagious

COVID-19’s omicron variant appears to be more transmissible, reinforcing the need for Americans to get vaccinations or booster shots, U.S. health officials said.

Omicron “is a clarion call” for people to be vaccinated, Anthony Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Infections in the U.S. are already rising and steppedup prevention with the emergence of the new variant will impact whether Americans are “headed into a bleak or bleaker winter,” he said.

Biden last week restricted U.S. travel links starting Monday with eight African countries including South Africa, where omicron was first identified. After Biden was briefed by his COVID response team and Fauci on Sunday, the White House said the president will provide an update on the U.S. response to omicron on Monday.

Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said “there’s no reason to panic, but … a great reason to go get boosted” with the discovery of omicron last week in South Africa. Existing vaccines have worked against mutations and may again now, he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

“Given that history, we expect that most likely the current vaccines will be sufficient to provide protection, and especially the boosters will give that additional layer of protection,” he added.

The omicron strain has spread rapidly in southern Africa and reached as far as Europe and Australia.

“Inevitably it will be” in the U.S., Fauci said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “The question is, will we be prepared for it?”

The U.S. has yet to stand up a national, comprehensive effort to sequence COVID-19 cases to help detect new variants. Instead, federal officials have largely relied on piecemeal state operations and other private labs to track variants. South Africa, on the other hand, is considered to have advanced genomic sequencing capability.

Omicron’s “molecular characteristics that would strongly suggest that it would be more transmissible,” Fauci said. For now, “we don’t know yet what the level of severity will be” nor how easily the variant evades existing vaccines, he said.

A new, targeted vaccine against omicron will take “at least three months or so to come into being,” Collins said. He said it’s “a great time” for Americans to get booster shots or initial vaccinations.

FAUCI BLASTS CRUZ

Fauci blasted Sen. Ted Cruz for suggesting that Fauci be investigated for statements he made about COVID-19 and said the criticism by the Texas Republican was an attack on science.

“I should be prosecuted? What happened on Jan. 6, senator?” Fauci, who is President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” It was a reference to the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump that was stoked as Cruz helped lead objections to Congress’ certifying the 2020 election results.

“I’m just going to do my job and I’m going to be saving lives, and they’re going to be lying,” Fauci said.

Some Republicans, including Cruz and Sen.

Rand Paul, R-Ky., have accused Fauci of lying to Congress when he denied in May that the National Institutes of Health funded “gain of function” research — the practice of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential impact in the real world — at a virology lab in Wuhan, China. Cruz has urged Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Fauci’s statements.