If good control over community spread of the coronavirus isn’t achieved, and more people don’t get vaccinated, then it’s possible that there may be another variant that is worse than Delta, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America, Thursday.
“That will happen, George, if we don’t get good control over the community spread,” Fauci said when asked if the US is facing a continuous cycle of seeing new variants.
“And as long as the virus continues to spread, you give it ample opportunity to mutate, and when you give it ample opportunity to mutate, you may sooner or later get another variant, and it is possible that that variant might be in some respects worse than the already very difficult variant we’re dealing with now,” he said. “Which is a major reason why you want to completely suppress the circulation of the virus in the community.”
This is why he and his colleagues keep saying how important it is to get as many people as possible vaccinated.
“People who say, I don’t want to get vaccinated because it’s me and I’ll worry about me, I’m not having any impact on anybody else, that’s just not the case,” he said. “Because when people don’t get vaccinated, it allows the virus to circulate through the community, and when it does, even if it doesn’t make a particular individual ill, they may be asymptomatic, that person is still a vehicle for the spread to other people.”
