BUFFALO, N.Y. — In a regular coronavirus briefing on Friday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo once again voiced concerns about new COVID strains.
"The new strains are frightening," Cuomo said, adding, "and there are going to be more strains, I would wager on it."
2 On Your Side spoke with two medical experts who both said, at this point, there's no need to panic.
"There are a couple of new variants of COVID-19 circulating in the population and I don't think people need to be overly concerned just yet because the data coming out about each of them is relatively new and there's still a lot that we need to learn," said Dr. AnnaLynn Williams, an epidemiologist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
She's also a Western New York native.
Dr. Williams said, "One of the strains that's being referred to as the UK variant, we have lots of data coming out now that suggests that both the vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna and Oxford- AstraZeneca should be very effective against that strain."
Added Dr. Thomas Russo, an infectious disease expert at the University at Buffalo: "Another variant that's gotten a little bit of buzz over the last week or so is a variant that's been described both in South Africa and Brazil. There remains greater uncertainty in terms of whether our vaccines will be optimally effective against this particular variant."
He added, "But the body of data on it remains small and there's still a lot to learn about this and I think we'll sort that out in the coming weeks."
However, even if the vaccines turn out to not be as effective against a new strain, both doctors explained they should still provide protection.
"I think it's important to point out that both of these vaccines that are currently approved in the US have over 95 percent efficacy which is extraordinarily high. That's much higher than most vaccines that we've been giving people for years," Dr. Williams said.
"So even if those vaccines' efficacy diminishes just a little bit with these new strains, maybe down to 80 percent, that is a large amount of protection especially when you compare that to the idea of not being vaccinated at all."
Dr. Russo added, "It's most likely that if we lose some degree of protection with this variant or variants yet to be described that the disease in those that are infected will be likely mild and you'll be less likely to be hospitalized and less likely to have a bad outcome."
But the new strains are expected to be more contagious so both doctors stressed the importance of continuing to follow public health measures.
Dr. Williams told 2 on Your Side, "I think it's important for people to know that the reason that the virus mutates is because it replicates and it can only replicate when it transmits from person to person and begins to multiply in those new people. So the more that we halt the transmission of the virus from person to person by wearing our masks, by physically distancing, the more that we'll stop new variants like this from coming out and the easier it will be for these vaccine manufacturers to keep up and to us all protected."
According to the governor's office, three additional cases of the UK variant were identified in Westchester and Kings counties, bringing the total to 25 known cases of the variant in New York State.
Learn more about the state's response here.