With various highly-contagious COVID variants being reported in the United States, even those who have previously had the novel virus stand a chance of being reinfected.
Now Dr. Anthony Fauci is warning that should these variants become dominant, people who previously had coronavirus have a “very high rate” of contracting COVID again.
"If it becomes dominant, the experience of our colleagues in South Africa indicate that even if you've been infected with the original virus that there is a very high rate of reinfection to the point where previous infection does not seem to protect you against reinfection," Fauci told CNN.
Because of this, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert stressed the importance of getting vaccinated.
"Even though there is a diminished protection against the variants, there's enough protection to prevent you from getting serious disease, including hospitalization and deaths," Fauci added. "So, vaccination is critical."
Fauci went on to further elaborate how vaccination can also stem the development of more mutations.
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“Viruses cannot mutate if they don't replicate,” he said during a virtual news briefing, per the outlet. “And if you stop their replication by vaccinating widely and not giving the virus an open playing field to continue to respond to the pressures that you put on it, you will not get mutations."
As of Tuesday, more than 32 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
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