Research shows that new variants of COVID-19 will keep the virus circulating at high levels throughout the summer. They said the variants could escape immunity from vaccines and past infections.
"Coronaviruses, historically, do not give lasting immunity, and that's the reason why with the common cold coronaviruses, we can get maybe a couple times a year," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said.
The new research hasn't yet been peer reviewed or published in a medical journal, but researchers tested antibodies from the blood of vaccinated and boosted people, and antibodies from people who'd recovered from a breakthrough COVID-19 infection. They found two of the latest variants are more likely to lead to breakthrough infections. Dr. Fauci said now a new kind of vaccine is needed.
"You want a vaccine that if you administer it in a nasal or oral way, it will give you enough upper airway protection that not only will you prevent infection, you will prevent transmission. And that's the major full court press that we're putting on now in the scientific community," he said.
Dr. Fauci said current vaccines and boosters still provide a good amount of protection from COVID-19 hospitalization and death.
