CDC scientists were “diminished” and “muzzled” under Trump, new director says
First task for Biden’s CDC director: Fix everything Trump broke

          
          
A bit of a cushion
Picking up the pace will involve helping states set the right eligibility conditions for vaccination—conditions that aren’t so restrictive that vaccine doses end up sitting unused in refrigerators or so loose that there are long lines outside overwhelmed vaccination sites, she said. The Biden team also aims to boost manufacturing for vaccine supplies, increase the number of people who can provide vaccines, and increase the number of places where vaccines are administered.
Addressing one of the most pressing topics in recent days, Walensky also said she and the Biden team have their eye on the concerning coronavirus variants that are popping up in various places around the world—including the US. The team is working to “dramatically” bolster surveillance efforts, including partnering with industry and academic labs, so that they can track any variants that develop in or enter the US and begin to spread.
The main things to worry about with variants are if they spread more easily, if they cause more severe disease and deaths, and if they make therapies and vaccines less effective, she noted. We’ve seen variants that seem to spread from person to person more easily. But we have yet to see evidence that variants are increasing disease and death or that they’re evading vaccines and therapies.
“I think the good news with regard to the variants is that the efficacy of the vaccines is so good and so high that we have a little bit of a cushion,” she said. Even if lab studies show vaccines aren’t quite as effective against a variant as the initial strain, “we’ll probably still end up with quite a good vaccine.” Her point has been echoed by many other experts who predict it will take years before the coronavirus evolves to completely outwit immune responses.
“I just want to remind people: almost no vaccine we have is 95 percent effective” like the COVID-19 vaccines, she added. “So before we panic and say, ‘Well, should I really get the vaccine if it’s not going to work against the variant?’—It’s going to work against the variant. Will it be 95 percent? Maybe. Will it be 70 percent? Maybe. But our flu vaccines aren’t 70 percent effective every year and we still get them. So I’m really optimistic about how these variants are going to go.”


          
                  