NEW YORK (1010 WINS) – Dr. Anthony Fauci said there was no reason to "despair" over coronavirus variants like the one recently discovered in New York City by researchers.
"Don't despair about the fact there are variants," Fauci said on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. "They are there, and we need to take them seriously."
But Fauci told anchor Dana Bash that we have two "tools" against the variants—public health measures like mask wearing and the vaccines.
"Even when you have variants, the vaccines will be important in preventing the spread. You get variants when the virus has sort of like a complete field of going wherever it wants to go because the people are vulnerable," he said.
"If you prevent that by public health measures and vaccination, you'll dampen the effect of these variants," Fauci said. "Keep the public health measures up and get as many people vaccinated as you can."
Two research groups — at Caltech and Columbia University — released papers this past week describing their findings about a new variant in New York City.
The new variant first appeared in the New York area in late November, and has since cropped up in neighboring states, according to researchers. It's not yet clear how problematic the new variant may be.
