The rate of COVID-19 vaccines rolling out and into Americans’ arms is not only important for saving lives and getting back to normal. It could also play a role in whether these vaccines become an annual thing, like the flu shot.
“But I think it is conceivable that some version of that will actually occur. We don’t know about that. What we would hope to do is get the level of infection so low that the circulation of virus will not have the opportunity from season to season or year to year to essentially change,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Talking with the head of the Journal of the American Medical Association, Fauci said while it’s still too early to say if COVID-19 might be a seasonal issue, there are ways to prevent that.
Vaccinations, not only in the United States, but around the world could mean the difference.
“The one wild card in that that could be disruptive to that plan is that we need to look upon this globally, because if you have a lot of replication going on in other countries of the world that sooner or later, even though you take care of your own country with vaccinations, mutants could tend to circulate in your society and diminish the protection of the vaccines you're using,” said Fauci.
Bottom line, Fauci says you have to crush the virus globally in order to squash the chance of it mutating season by season.
That's why he says he's happy the U.S. has rejoined the World Health Organization and COVAX is helping get the vaccine to underserved countries.
Right now, Israel, the United Kingdom and the U.S. lead in vaccinations based on population and are far ahead of other first world countries.
Underserved nations aren't even registering yet for vaccinations on a world tracker by Oxford.