华盛顿-美国卫生官员认为，在美国部分地区引起警觉的冠状病毒突变不比在美国折磨人的菌株更容易引起严重疾病或对疫苗具有抵抗力，但仍必须“非常认真地对待它，政府首席传染病专家周日表示。
安东尼·福西（Anthony Fauci）博士赞同美国官员决定要求负面的COVID-19测试，然后才允许英国人进入美国。他拒绝权衡是否应早日采取这一步骤。他说，变异株是“要非常仔细地遵循”的东西，“我们现在正在非常集中地研究它。”
他说：“这会使某人病得更多吗？从毒力上讲，它是更严重的病毒吗？答案是，事实并非如此。” 英国官员告诉他们的美国同事，似乎已经推出的疫苗足够强大，可以应对新的变种，但Fauci说，“我们将自己进行研究。”
福西（Fauci）说，美国正处于大流行的关键阶段，最严重的恐怕仍在继续。他预测，到三月下旬或四月初，普通人群将获得广泛的免疫接种-一线工人，老年人和某些其他公众人群将优先接种疫苗。
福奇谈到了美国有线电视新闻网的“国际联盟状况”。
WASHINGTON -- U.S. health officials believe the coronavirus mutation that set off alarms in parts of Britain is no more apt to cause serious illness or be resistant to vaccines than the strain afflicting people in the United States but it still must be taken “very seriously,” the government’s top infectious disease expert said Sunday.
Dr. Anthony Fauci endorsed the decision of U.S. officials to require negative COVID-19 tests before letting people from Britain enter the U.S. He declined to weigh in on whether that step should have been taken sooner. He said the variant strain is something “to follow very carefully” and “we’re looking at it very intensively now.”
He said: “Does it make someone more ill? Is it more serious virus in the sense of virulence? And the answer is, it doesn’t appear to be that way.” British officials are telling their U.S. colleagues it appears that the vaccinesbeing rolled out will be strong enough to deal with the new variant but, Fauci said, "we’re going to be doing the studies ourselves.”
Fauci said the U.S. is at a critical phase of the pandemic, with the worst probably still ahead. He predicted the general population would be getting immunized widely by late March or early April — beyond the front-line workers, older people and certain other segments of the public given priority for the vaccines.
Fauci spoke on CNN's “State of the Union.”
