(WBEN) - Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday raised fear in the efficacy of vaccines to combat yet-to-be discovered strains of Coronavirus.
"I believe it's just a matter of time until there is a strain that is much more lethal," Cuomo said, without giving any reason for his claim. "Unfortunately, I believe you have to anticipate a strain that is vaccine resistant. It is almost a matter of probability."
But the experts aren't exactly backing up the Governor's dire prediction.
"We need to take a whole breath over these variants," said Dr. Tom Russo, Chief of Infectious Disease at the Jacobs School of Medicine. "What we do know, is that with the UK variant, it looks like our vaccination should be effective against that."
And there is similar hope for any other variant of the virus that comes our way.
"Even if some of these variants decrease the efficacy (of the vaccine) to a degree, look at our influenza vaccine," Russo said. "In a given season that may only be 30-40% effective in preventing against symptomatic infection. But even with those low efficacy rates, it significantly decreases the number of people with serious disease that requires hospitalization and decreases the number of deaths."
Russo added that if there is a variant that is completely resistant to the vaccines that are currently available, it shouldn't take a big adjustment to make new MRNA vaccines for different strains given the synthetic nature of manufacturing them.
"I think we need to relax a little about this," Russo said, while saying that public health measures like social distancing and mask wearing need to continue to be used to combat the spread. "I think we're going to be OK."
