Dr. Fauci pushes need for global vaccination effort

WASHINGTON (AP) – Dr. Anthony Fauci says the virus that causes COVID-19 could gain a permanent place in the population without global vaccination.

The U.S. government’s top infectious disease expert during the International AIDS Society’s COVID-19 conference warned Monday that without a global vaccination effort the virus wouldn’t go away.

Recent results on two candidate vaccines suggest they may work less well against some virus variants, especially one first detected in South Africa. However, Fauci says they are still extremely good at preventing serious illness or death. He added that the impact of vaccines on the pandemic depends not just on how well they work but how quickly and completely they’re distributed.