Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said on NBC’s “Weekend Today” on Saturday, Nov. 27 that he “would not be surprised” if the Omicron variant of COVID-19 were already in the U.S., though not detected yet, and warned that a virus with this degree of transmissibility “almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over.”
The following day, the Biden Administration’s head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, appeared on “Fox News Sunday” and emphasized two points: Little is known with any certainty about the new variant; and now is the time for any Americans not yet vaccinated to get one of the vaccines and to get a booster shot if possible.
Regarding the Omicron variant “escaping” from vaccine immunity, Dr. Collins said only, “We don’t know that. We don’t know about its severity. We should find that out in the next two to three weeks.” He further stated that in South Africa the variant “seems” to be quite infectious, but that more testing would show whether that is, in fact, the case.
Collins also said, “We expect the current vaccines to be effective” against Omicron, and that he expected that booster shots would show particular efficacy against it. He discussed the fact that if it becomes necessary, both Pfizer and Moderna will develop vaccines altered to protect against this specific variant, within a matter of months, and urged all those without vaccination to get one.