KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas Department of Health and Environment Secretary Dr. Lee Norman wants to help people frame their mindset about a potential COVID-19 vaccine.
At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Norman said there is some doubt as to if a vaccine will work on all strains of COVID-19.
Norman showed a chart in which COVID-19 patients, displayed as dots, were grouped into overlapping clusters of different strains. The data is similarly constructed to a family tree, Norman said.
Now that there is more emerging evidence that people can get COVID-19 twice, Norman said epidemiologists have yet to determine if someone will be immune to a strain of COVID-19 if it’s different than the strain they previously had.
Therefore, Norman said a vaccine’s ability to protect against all strains is called into question.
Norman also on Wednesday gave an update on Kansas’ case numbers and deaths.
The state is in much the same position it was last week — in the red zone in terms of total cases and deaths, but in the green zone for testing.
Kansas is in the orange zone for its positive test rate of 8.3%.
Watch Norman’s full remarks below.
