[ad_1]
Original title: Virus mutates one after another for the new corona vaccine
Virus mutations, new strains out of control and more infectious … In recent days, news of the discovery of new variants of the new corona virus in the UK has caused panic around the world. The UK, which has become the new eye of the global epidemic, is even more “isolated”: The issue of “Brexit” has become tangled in many ways, and now many countries have collectively “quarantined” it because of to the mutation of the virus. For a time, the UK is like an island. Worse still, a variant of the new coronavirus has also appeared in South Africa which, although it has nothing to do with the United Kingdom, is also highly contagious. The news that the vaccine started worldwide vaccination has not brought much benefit, and the news of the new coronavirus mutation has poured cold water.
Panic
At the critical moment when Christmas approaches, Britain suddenly fell into a great panic. Since the news of the mutation of the virus came, the situation has worsened According to the Xinhua news agency, as of 9:00 p.m. local time, some 30 countries and regions have banned entry to the United Kingdom. It should be noted that the French government just issued a ban the day before, suspending all travel by UK personnel, including cargo personnel, within 48 hours from 0:00 on the 21st Paris time. . Only unaccompanied goods can be shipped from the UK to France. Staff travel to the UK remains normal.
This ban caused confusion in the Port of Dover and at cargo checkpoints in the UK, affecting the entire transport chain. The UK’s two largest supermarket chains, Tesco and Sainsbury, raised concerns about supply problems on the 21st. Sainsbury said: “If this situation continues, we will soon start to face a shortage of lettuce, some leafy vegetables for salad, cauliflower, broccoli and citrus fruits. “
To this end, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on the night of the 21st that he had already spoken with French President Emmanuel Macron. Johnson said the delay at the port affects only a small proportion of imported food and he hopes to solve the problem of poor cargo traffic on the British-French border in “a few hours.” According to the British “Guardian” report, Johnson stressed that the French decision blocked 20% of the cross-border transport of food, medicine and other goods through British ports and triggered government crisis plans in Dover and other key areas.
The French ban still points to a mutated virus in the UK. On the 14th of this month, the UK announced the emergence of a new mutated corona virus. Soon after, British Health Secretary Hancock warned that the epidemic caused by the mutated strain of the virus was “out of control.” On the 21st, Maria Van Kokhoff, technical director of the Health Emergencies Program of the World Health Organization (WHO), pointed out at a press conference that the transmission rate of this new variant of the coronavirus has gone from 1.1 to 1 ,5.
“This is the most difficult Christmas our city has faced since World War II.” Not long ago, the Mayor of London nailed it. On 19 local time, Johnson announced that London and other regions will implement the highest level of “level 4” lockdown restrictions since the morning of 20 local time, to address the dire situation of the rapid spread of the new virus. crown after mutation. At the time, Johnson mentioned that the new variant of the new coronavirus may be 70% more infectious than the original strain. It is also because of this that the “London Escape” scene that shocked the world.
The problem in the UK is not over yet. The WHO confirmed on the 21st that South Africa has also mutated the new coronavirus. Although the new mutated coronavirus has nothing to do with the UK, it is also highly infectious. South Africa has also faced the same situation. Currently, six countries, including Israel, Turkey, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Mauritius, have closed their borders to tourists from South Africa.
No evidence of invalidation
The panic caused by the mutation of the virus has spread to the capital market. During the trading phase of the European stock market on the 21st, the VIX index, known as the panic index, rose more than 30%, setting a new high since November 6. On the same day, European stocks opened strongly: the European Stoxx50 index fell 3% intraday, the French CAC40 index and the German DAX index fell more than 3% intraday and the British FTSE 100 index fell more than 2%.
Panic definitely cannot continue to spread. On the 21st, the European Medicines Agency made a positive evaluation of the safety and efficacy of the new corona vaccine developed jointly by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. and the German biotechnology company. Subsequently, the European Commission approved the conditional inclusion of the vaccine in the EU.
That night, the president of the European Commission, Von der Lein, issued a statement saying that the EU has decided to grant a conditional sales license for the vaccine and authorize it to enter the EU market. In the coming days, the first batch of vaccines will be shipped from Pfizer’s production base in Belgium, and countries can start working on vaccination. An estimated 200 million doses of vaccine can be administered by September 2021.
Prior to this, the United States had released the new vaccination crown on the 14th. The first group of people to get vaccinated were medical personnel and groups living in long-term care facilities, such as nursing homes. More high-risk groups in the United States are expected to be vaccinated in January next year, with the vaccine expected to be fully available in April. Moncef Slaoui, chief consultant for “Operation Warp,” predicts that Pfizer and Moderna may produce and administer between 60 and 70 million doses of vaccine by January next year, and the other two vaccine manufacturers AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson will also receive Approved vaccine.
Fortunately, the vaccines appeared before the virus mutated. But what followed was concern about the efficacy of existing vaccines. Several WHO experts said on the 21st that although the virus has undergone several genetic mutations since the outbreak of the new corona epidemic, currently known mutations, including the mutant virus that has recently appeared in the UK, have an impact on the crown’s new drugs, therapies, test methods and vaccines. It did not cause a significant impact.
Vaccine expert Tao Lina also said that WHO has made it very clear that there is currently no evidence that the vaccine fails after the new coronavirus mutation. Symptoms, rates of severe illness, and death rates were basically unchanged and did not affect the efficacy of the vaccine.
Taolina further noted that the inactivated vaccines are primarily to increase the insurance rate of success. It is betting on all proteins to make sure all proteins are within range. Foreign mRNA vaccines are primarily part of the immune protein. If the mutation is not in the key site of the protein, immunological efficacy will not be significantly affected.
Yan Run, director of antibody drug research and development, also noted that the current mutation of the new coronavirus is only a small part, and it is unclear whether it has any specific impact. Follow-up research and medical tests are needed. Vaccines play a role primarily in the production of antibodies against key proteins. The protein after virus mutation may be different from the protein used in the previous vaccine development, or there may be a certain difference. Therefore, the mutated virus can still be identified. Produces immunity. The immune proteins used by various vaccine research and development teams may be different, and some may use multiple proteins, so the effect of the vaccine is not necessarily affected.
As a research and development team for vaccines that have been vaccinated around the world, the German biotech company BioNTech also held a press conference on the 22nd. Founder and CEO Ugg Sain said that the variants found in the UK have 9 mutations. It contains more than 1,000 amino acids, of which only 9 amino acids have changed, which means that 99% of the protein remains the same ”. Therefore, from a scientific point of view, the vaccine is expected to provide protection.
I still need to keep monitoring
In Taulina’s opinion, the virus mutation is expected. The new coronavirus is an RNA (ribonucleic acid) virus. RNA viruses are inherently unstable and prone to mutations, but they have not mutated enough to require multiple screening tests. The basic vaccine must be made first. If the vaccine needs to be improved as the virus mutates, a bivalent and quadrivalent vaccine may be developed in the future as a vaccine against cervical cancer.
At a regular press conference on December 21, WHO chief scientist Sumia Swaminatan emphasized that the mutation rate of the new coronavirus is much slower than that of the influenza virus, although there are many mutations, none of them . It has a great impact on therapeutic drugs or vaccines in development, but the new coronavirus must be constantly monitored.
At present, all countries are waiting, Europe, which has just approved the first vaccine, has placed particular emphasis on the problem of mutation. The European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that people who have been vaccinated should be closely monitored to ensure that potential vaccination failures or invalid cases can be detected, and that virus isolated from those who have not been vaccinated it must be sequenced and analyzed.
Yan Run said that in response to the mutation of the virus, the vaccine will be adjusted in further research and development, and like the influenza virus vaccine, it will be improved each year according to the mutation of the influenza virus. Also, next year there will be new developments against therapeutic antibodies.
The British Medical Journal also published an article saying that new corona vaccines that passed all three phases of the trials can be adjusted according to future epidemic prevention needs. Once medical institutions control a mutant virus that can cause the vaccine to fail, the vaccine design can be updated. Ugg Sain has promised that, in principle, the company can make a new vaccine against the new mutant virus in six weeks.
For countries, ensuring the efficacy of vaccines is the highest priority at this time. After all, vaccines will not fail, but it can also be difficult to control the epidemic in the short term. Let us not forget that the eye of the epidemic, the United Kingdom, is precisely the first country to approve the emergency use of the new corona vaccine. On December 3, local time, the United Kingdom approved the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine. On December 8, the UK officially launched the vaccination campaign. As of December 20, more than 500,000 people in the UK have been vaccinated against the new crown.
According to Worldometer real-time data, at 7:30 p.m. on December 22 Beijing time, at least 30 countries, including the United States, Brazil, India, Russia and other countries, had more than 1,000 new confirmed cases in a single day. Among them, the number of confirmed cases of new coronary pneumonia in the United States has exceeded 18 million.
However, WHO Director General Tan Desai also cautioned against pinning all hopes on the new corona vaccine. People should remain vigilant and take preventive measures against the novel coronavirus. Beijing Business Daily Reporter Yang Yuehan Tang Yitian
