Another COVID variant could emerge this winter, Fauci warns

White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned Tuesday that “we should not be surprised” if a new COVID-19 variant emerges in the winter. 

Speaking during an event with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, Fauci said that while pandemic trends like hospitalizations were down nationwide, challenges still lie ahead.

“We should anticipate that we very well may get another variant that would emerge that would elude the immune response that we’ve gotten from infection and/or from vaccination,” Fauci said, noting that there’s always the risk of an uptick of respiratory diseases during the winter months. 

Last winter, the omicron variant led to a surge in cases, and multiple sublineages have spread since then.

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“Remember, we were going in the right direction in the summer of 2021 and along came delta. Then, in the winter – November, December of 2021 – along came omicron. And, since then, we’ve had multiple sublineages of omicron,” he said.

The White House and health officials are encouraging eligible Americans to get an updated omicron-specific booster shot of the coronavirus vaccine.

Fauci pointed out that the vaccine was directed at the major-circulating variant.

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Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows BA.5 is the prevalent variant, making up more than 81% of cases.

According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, COVID-19 has killed more than a million people in the U.S. and infected over 96 million.

In the past day, there have been more than 42,000 new cases and 542 new deaths.