Page 15 - Beta Variant News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Africa, and so far several other places such as belgium, hong kong, and israel have confirmed cases. in europe, travel restrictions are being weighed against seven african countries, six of those being added to the uk's red list. all flights from those locations suspended. today the world health organization meets to determine how they should classify the new variant. meanwhile, dr. anthony fauci says despite there being no indication the variant is in the u.s., we need to be prepared to take proactive measures. >> first of all, you want to find out if, in fact, it does evade the vaccines that...

This tech have started investigating the impact of the variant on its vaccine developed with pfizer, with data expected within the next couple weeks. this isn't the first variants to initially be detected in south africa. last year the beta variant was identified there. there were fears it could quickly spread around the world and become the dominant variant worldwide. that didn't happen. now authorities are working to see whether this new variant will slowly smolder or quickly spread around the planet. elizabeth cohen, cnn, reporting. >> our thanks to elizabeth cohen. joining me to talk about...

To cause infection. the covid-19 vaccines target the spike protein. if the spike changes too much and in the wrong ways, it could make the vaccines less effective. learns where the mutations are and how they change the spike protein, will be key. >> first of all, we're getting the material together with our south african colleagues to get a situation where you can directly test it. >> reporter: scientists and biontech have already started investigating the variant, with data expected within the next couple of weeks. this isn't the first variant to initially be detected in south africa. last ye...

Fauci told cnn earlier today. >> first of all, you want to find out if, in fact, it does evade the vaccines that we're doing. i mean, there's always the possibility of doing what the uk has done, namely, block travel from south africa and related countries. we don't know know that. that's something you think about and get prepared to do. you're prepared to do everything you need to do to protect the american public. but you want to make sure there's a basis for doing that, and there's what we're doing right now. >> dr. fauci also has emphasized the importance of getting boosters, which are now...

They're also putting money back into stay-at-home stocks. we've seen everything from zoom and netflix to teladoc actually gained ground here. i want to caution this is a holiday on wall street. the nyse closing at 1:00 p.m. in new york. very thin trading volume and that can amplify moves one way or the other. the market is still up big, more than 20% so far this year despite today's losses. the spooich has more than doubled the lows of march of 2020. big picture, we need more information. if this doesn't turn out to be as scary as the initial headlines, we could see markets rebound here. on th...