COLUMBUS, Ohio — With a new COVID-19 variant entering parts of the country, an OhioHealth doctor says coronavirus is an RNA virus and they change all the time.
Despite that, OhioHealth's Dr. Joseph Gastaldo said the virus changing to this new variant is more concerning.
“The new variant does spread more efficiently and because of that more people are expected to contract COVID-19,” Dr. Gastaldo said.
The doctor explained that this new variant causes a higher viral load in people.
“The predominant driving force of COVID-19 are not new different variants, it’s human behavior,” Dr. Gastaldo.
That’s why he and other medical experts are emphasizing the importance of the safety mitigations that are already in place. Those include social distancing, wearing a mask and washing hands frequently.
“The symptoms will be the same, the testing will be the same, how we treat hospitalized patients will be the same, the immune response from the vaccine are expected to be the same,” Dr. Gastaldo said.
He said both Pfizer and Moderna have had statements saying that they expect their vaccines to induce an immune response to this variant.
“However, they are also going to verify that in the lab,” Dr. Gastaldo said.
Dr. Gastaldo said this variant still has 99% of the same genetic material in common with the original virus.
He hopes to bring more awareness to vaccination rates.
As a goal, OhioHealth hopes to vaccinate 1,000 people a day and 12,000 people by the end of the week.
