US' top doctor, Anthony Stephen Fauci, spoke to NDTV today over Covid-19 situation.
US' top Covid expert, Dr Anthony Stephen Fauci, spoke to NDTV today on the coronavirus situation in India and the United States. Dr Fauci shared his views on the effectiveness of vaccines, the severity of the Delta variant, and the overall Covid situation in general. Here are the highlights of the conversation:
- On the situation in US: "America is doing very well with the implementation of vaccines. Around 64% of our adult population has at least one dose of the 2-dose vaccine."
- On Delta variant: "The Delta variant, which is found in many states in India spreads far more efficiently, and hence any country has that variant should be worried as it spreads much faster," he added, "any country with the Delta variant must have extensive preparation to deal with it."
On the effectiveness of vaccines: Vaccines do very well against the 'Alpha' variant. The mRNA have a high efficacy against the 617 Alpha variant.
On the gap between the two doses of vaccines: "Extending intervals between Covid vaccine doses could leave people vulnerable to infection by one of the variants of the virus," he said, adding "the duration between the 2 doses of the mRNA vaccines from US is 3 weeks for Pfizer and 4 weeks for Moderna."
Interactions with Indian scientists: "We had very good interactions with Indian scientists and have discussed Covid in detail."
Important to be critical: It is important to be critical, but we are critical in hindsight. This is a dangerous virus and is very problematic. India has faced the brunt of it. We need to tackle this virus the world over.