Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, said Sunday that federal health officials are keeping a close eye on Delta and other coronavirus variants, such as Lambda, but as of right now there aren't major worries about any of them rendering the available COVID-19 vaccines ineffective.
"At NIH, working with [the Food and Drug Administration] and [the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention], we have a very vigorous team that looks at every new emerging variant to see what would its effect be in terms of the vaccine, will the vaccine work against this one," Collins told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on Sunday's edition of This Week. "So far, so good. We don't have anxieties yet about Delta or Lambda or any of the others that are sort of lurking out there."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Ozempic can curb alcohol cravings, study findsSpeed read Weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy may also be helpful in limiting alcohol consumption
-
New form of H5N1 bird flu found in US dairy cowsSpeed Read This new form of bird flu is different from the version that spread through herds in the last year
-
Microplastics accumulating in human brains, study findsSpeed Read The amount of tiny plastic particles found in human brains increased dramatically from 2016 to 2024
-
FDA approves painkiller said to thwart addictionSpeed Read Suzetrigine, being sold as Journavx, is the first new pharmaceutical pain treatment approved by the FDA in 20 years
-
Study finds possible alternative abortion pillSpeed Read An emergency contraception (morning-after) pill called Ella could be an alternative to mifepristone for abortions
-
HMPV is spreading in China but there's no need to worryThe Explainer Respiratory illness is common in winter
-
Marty Makary: the medical contrarian who will lead the FDAIn the Spotlight What Johns Hopkins surgeon and commentator Marty Makary will bring to the FDA
-
California declares bird flu emergencySpeed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
