December 22nd that should the new strain of COVID-19 cause concern? Reports from the United Kingdom and South Africa on seemingly more easily transmitted COVID-19 strains are causing panic, but it is not clear whether the situation is true or whether the new strains will affect the effectiveness of the vaccine or lead to more seriousness. Disease of
Why is the strain recently discovered in the UK worrying?
British and American health experts say that the new strain seems to be more infectious than other strains, but there is no evidence that it is more lethal.
Vallance, the chief scientific adviser of the British government, said that the new strain “spreads rapidly and is becoming the main virus variant”. By December, more than 60% of infections in London were caused by this new strain.
Another worrying thing about this strain is that it has many mutations – almost more than 20 – and some of them exist on the spiny proteins that the virus adheres to and causes cell infection. Acanthoprotein is exactly what the vaccine is currently being developed.
“Of course, I’m worried about that,” said Ravi Gupta, an expert on the virus at Cambridge University in the UK. However, he believes that it is too early to determine how much impact this new situation will eventually have.
How did the new strain appear?
In the normal evolution of viruses, there are often one or two slight changes in the genetic code. The strain that has undergone slight changes may become the most common strain in the country or region, simply because it was the earliest virus strain to be popular there, or because the “super spreader” incident has taken root in the region.
More worrying is that the virus mutates by changing the protein on its surface, thus allowing it to escape the blow of drugs or immune systems.
“Emerging evidence” suggests that COVID-19 may have begun to occur,” tweeted Trevor Bedford, a biology and geneticist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, USA. He pointed out that the fact that “we have now seen some variants appear and spread” shows this, and some variants show resistance to antibody therapy.
What other strains have appeared?
Gupta of Cambridge University said that in April this year, Swedish researchers found a strain with two genetic changes, which seemed to roughly double its infectivity. Gupta said that about 6,000 cases caused by this strain were reported worldwide, mainly in Denmark and the United Kingdom.
At present, several variants of this strain have appeared. Some people infected with new strains are reported to be associated with mink farms in Denmark. A new strain of virus in South Africa has also undergone two genetic changes previously discovered, in addition to other changes.
Gupta said that there are also two and more changes in the new strain found in the UK, including eight changes in spiny protein. It has been called a “variant under investigation” because its importance is unknown at present.
A World Health Organization official told the BBC on the 20th that the strain was discovered in the southeastern part of the United Kingdom in September and has been spreading in this region since then.
Will the new strain weaken the effectiveness of the vaccine?
Scott Gottlieb, who served as the director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on the 20th that maybe not.
Gupta also thought: “It’s unlikely.”
“There’s no reason to think that the vaccine developed will not be effective against the emerging virus,” said Vivek Mersey, the director of the U.S. President-elect Biden’s director of public health, on NBC’s Conversation with the Press on the 20th.
Some experts point out that vaccines allow the immune system to respond widely, not just to spiny proteins.
Monsef Slavy, the chief scientific adviser of the U.S. government’s vaccine distribution, said on CNN’s State of the Union on the 20th that the possibility of new strains to be resistant to existing vaccines is low, but not “no” that possibility.
He said: “So far, I don’t think any variant has drug resistance. I think the possibility that this special variant in Britain can escape the immune effect of vaccines is very low.
Bedford agrees with this view.