Fauci says preliminary information shows Omicron variant does not cause severe disease

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Fauci says preliminary information shows Omicron variant does not cause severe disease

Nov 30 Reuters - It is too early to know whether Omicron variant of COVID 19 will lead to severe disease, but preliminary information from South Africa indicates it does not result in unusual symptoms, top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday.

Fauci said there were 226 confirmed cases of the variant in 20 countries as of Tuesday morning, but Omicron had not been detected yet in the United States.

Fears about the variant rattled financial markets and sparked concerns about the strength of the global economic recovery as the world continues to fight the coronaviruses epidemic.

Fauci told reporters in a briefing that it was very difficult to know whether or not this particular variant is going to cause severe disease. Although preliminary information from South Africa shows no unusual symptoms we do not know, it is too early to tell. President Joe Biden and his administration have pressed Americans to take advantage of vaccines and booster shots, but vaccine hesitancy in a segment of the U.S. population has thwarted efforts to tame the spread of the disease. Approximately 69% of Americans aged 12 and up are fully vaccinated.

With good reason, we are hoping that there will be some degree of protection against the vaccine variant, according to Fauci. If you're vaccinated, get boosted. The president said that to beat the epidemic, we have to vaccinate the world as well.

Fauci noted on Tuesday that the United States was doing more than other nations, asked if the United States was doing enough to vaccine the rest of the world.

Enough' is a tough word. Are we doing a lot? He said that we are doing an awful lot.

Fauci said getting vaccine into people's arms in southern African countries and other low- and middle-income countries had proved difficult logistically and many of the vaccines shipped went unused.

Other African countries have told us not to ship any more vaccine because they have not been able to adequately utilize it, he said.