Read the original article on Best Life. One of the most helpful tools for combating COVID are the monoclonal antibody treatments used to help patients with severe COVID. However, Fauci said there’s a chance these treatments may not be effective against the South African strain of COVID. CNBC reports that after discussions with health experts in South Africa, Fauci said early data suggests there’s “more of a threat” that the strain could evade some of the protections that antibody treatments provide to patients. “It could be having some impact on protection for the monoclonal antibodies and perhaps even for the vaccine. We don’t know that,” Fauci said during a Q&A for Schmidt Futures’ Forum on Preparedness on Jan. 12. During a Dec. 30 discussion with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Fauci explained that antibody treatments work against a “very specific component of the virus,” called the spike protein. So if that component is altered in a mutation, it could render the treatment less powerful.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb On the other hand, “when you get vaccinated, the immune response that you make…works against many different parts of the virus,” said Fauci, indicating it’s likely that the vaccines will work against these strains. For more vaccine news, check out If You Take These OTC Meds, You Have to Stop Before Getting the Vaccine. “People ask me, ‘Are you worried about it?’ These are not the kind of things I worry about, but it’s the kind of thing that I take very seriously,” Fauci said during the forum. In a discussion about the U.K. strain with NPR on Jan. 7, Fauci said the new strain is “serious enough we have to pay attention to it. We can’t just blow it off.” He added, “You always have to be concerned when you see mutations that have a functional capability.” And for more up-to-date COVID news delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. On Jan. 12, Eli Lilly Chairman and CEO Dave Ricks told CNBC the company expects that their monoclonal antibody treatment will be effective in treating the U.K. strain of COVID, but he was less confident about the South African strain. “The South African variant… is the one of concern. It has more dramatic mutations to that spike protein, which is the target” of the antibody treatment, Ricks said. “Theoretically, it could evade our medicines.” And for more information on the U.K. variant, check out Dr. Fauci Just Made This Scary Prediction About the U.K. COVID Strain. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hasn’t identified any cases of the South African COVID strain in the U.S. However, there have been at least 72 cases of the U.K. strain reported in the U.S. as of Jan. 11. To see which states the U.K. strain is in, check out The New COVID Strain Is Now in These 10 States.
