Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky delivered grave news on Tuesday, saying that the coronavirus or COVID is "just a few mutations away" from being able to evade vaccines.
The health official said that while the current COVID vaccines made available to Americans may still protect against severe disease brought about by the coronavirus, its continuous spread and mutation among the unvaccinated population will serve as a threat to the protection provided by vaccine immunization, the New York Post reported.
This is the most recent of times when the government blamed the spread of COVID on those who refuse to get inoculated with experimental vaccines linked to various dangers and risks such as death.
"The largest concern that I think we in public health and sciences are worried about is that virus and potential mutations ... [have] the potential to evade our vaccine in terms of how it protects us from severe disease and death," Dr. Walensky said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
"Right now, fortunately, we are not there. These vaccines operate really well in protecting us from severe disease and death. But the big concern is the next area that might emerge, just a few mutations potentially away, could potentially evade our vaccines."
Dr. Walensky insisted that because of this grave possibility, more people should get the COVID vaccines as soon as possible, despite the idea that mutations mean vaccines won't work in the long run.
On Tuesday, the CDC released updated mask mandates that require vaccinated individuals to wear masks indoors in places where there has been an uptick in new cases. Health officials continue to accuse the unvaccinated population of spreading the highly contagious delta variant of COVID.
According to CNBC, the delta variant of COVID, which was first detected in India, now makes up 83% of all sequenced COVID cases in the U.S., a 50% rise from the cases detected on July 3. There also has been an increase in COVID deaths by 48%, raising the average to 239 per day.
Conservative and Republican leaders have criticized the CDC's changing guidelines on COVID safety after it announced in May that fully vaccinated folks can now do away with mask wearing anywhere. Now, the masks are required to be put back on and Republicans are expressing dissent once again.
"If vaccines work...then why do people who have the vaccine need to now wear masks?" Fox News' Peter Doocy demanded during a White House press briefing, as per Breitbart. Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that "The public health leaders in our administration have made the determination, based on data, that that is a way to make sure they're protected."
However, now the data says that COVID may evolve and mutate to surpass protection and immunization from vaccines. Republican Representative Greg Steube of Florida declared, "The American people have had enough of Biden and Fauci's fake science. This is going to make the problem worse, not better."
President Biden continued to single out the unvaccinated population, accusing them of spreading COVID and calling it "a pandemic among the non-vaccinated," CNN reported. Aside from launching a door-to-door campaign to encourage the vaccine hesitant to get the COVID jabs, the Biden administration is also looking to pressure the FDA to grant full approval of the COVID vaccines and announced on Friday the purchase of "hundreds of millions of additional Pfizer doses."
Once the FDA grants full approval to these vaccines, the Biden administration can be expected to enact vaccine mandates, essentially forcing people to get vaccinated whether they like it or not.
