No shock UK strain is here

It’ll spread in US: Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday that it was “inevitable” that a new COVID-19 strain has appeared in Colorado and California — and predicted its spread in the United States, although “it does not appear to be more virulent.”

“We predicted it would be, when you have so much of it in the UK, which then spread to other countries in Europe and Canada, it was inevitable that it would be here,” Fauci said on NBC’s “Today.”

“You’ll be hearing reports from other states and more cases in the states than is already reported. Unfortunately, that’s just the reality of the way these viruses spread,” he said.

“Our British colleagues have shown, clearly, that it is much more efficient in spreading from person to person,” Fauci said, adding that “the good news is that it does not appear to be more virulent, namely, making people more sick and leading to more death.”

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, also noted that the mutation “does not seem to evade the protection that’s afforded by vaccines that are currently being used.”

“But the fact that you have a virus that spreads more efficiently is something that’s important and needs to be taken seriously.

“This just underscores the need to continue to put our foot to the floor and the pedal, about making sure we do the public-health measures that we talk about all the time. The wearing of masks, the physical distancing, the avoiding crowds in congregant settings,” Fauci said.

Regarding the national vaccination plan, Fauci told host Craig Melvin that it was “disappointing” to have administered close to 3 million dosed — not 20 million as previously projected — by the end of 2020.

“Hopefully, as you get into the first couple of weeks in January, the gaining of momentum will get us to the point where we want to be,” he said.

“But there really has to be a lot more effort in the sense of resources for the locals, namely, the states, the cities, the counties, the places where the vaccine is actually going into the arms of individuals. You have to support the local groups, the states and the cities, to help them to get this task done, which is a very prodigious task.”

On Wednesday, Fauci said he foresees the US achieving enough collective COVID-19 immunity through vaccinations to regain “some semblance of normality” by autumn 2021.