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According to the foreign media BGR,Some researchers are concerned that the new Danish mink coronavirus mutation has pandemic potential, while other researchers said more research is needed before the current COVID-19 vaccine candidate may be ineffective against the new strain.The Danish government previously announced that up to 17 million minks will be culled to prevent the new coronavirus mutation from infecting more people; the mutated version of the virus has infected at least 12 people.
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It’s unclear how dangerous this variant is for vaccine research, but researchers in Denmark have begun to share the genome sequence of the mink variant.
A few days ago, the Danish government announced that up to 17 million minks would be slaughtered in the country, which actually destroyed the entire mink fur industry in the country and shocked the world. Officials chose this radical plan because of the potentially dangerous mutation of the new corona virus in the captive mink. According to Danish media reports, this new mutated coronavirus has infected at least 12 people. Researchers are concerned that the new strain of the virus may be so dangerous that it can effectively inactivate current COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Now, a new report brings more troubling news because some researchers believe this mutated strain of the new coronavirus has pandemic potential. At the same time, others called for calm.
“The worst case scenario is that we will start a new pandemic in Denmark,” Professor Kåre Mølbak said in an interview with The Guardian. “There is a risk that this mutated virus is so different from other viruses that we have to add something new to the vaccine, so (the mutation) will take our whole world back to the beginning.” Mølbak is a vaccine expert. He is also the Director of Infectious Diseases at the Danish National Serum Institute (SSI).
“We know that there are measures to deal with the virus, including testing and controlling the infection. As far as we know, the epidemic will be under control,” the expert added. However, after all 12 people were infected with the mutant virus, according to SSI recommendations, mink was still considered a public health risk.
Allan Randrup Thomasen, a virologist at the University of Copenhagen, told The Guardian that risks still exist in the country. “This variant can grow further and become completely resistant, and then the vaccine is not important,” said the professor. “So we have to put[变异]Eliminate from the equation. So this is serious. Thomsen told local media that Denmark should close the mink farm due to the risk.
Researchers have not fully specified the mutation and more data is needed. However, a Dutch virologist provided some details about the new coronavirus mutation in mink. “It appears that the mink mutation was found in the peak glycoprotein of the Sars-Cov-2 virus, but we really don’t know,” Wim van der Poel told the newspaper. “We don’t know what type of vaccine we want. Therefore, more research is needed.”
He said countries should prevent the spread of the virus in mink and other animals, such as badgers and minks, even if there is no mutation. “Suppose[这]It is also a risk in the Netherlands, but our fur farming industry has been eliminated. After the end of this year, now there is no fur production. “If the virus spreads wildly among these animal populations,” then it will have a ‘reservoir’ among our local wild animals, and we may become infected again before we even get a high-quality vaccine. “
Earlier this year, when the Dutch government clearly recognized that these animals can infect pathogens and transmit them to humans, the Dutch government was one of the first countries to order the slaughter of minks.
Researchers don’t know if this new mutated coronavirus can spread well to humans, but the 12 infected people in Denmark have shown reason to worry. Ian Jones, a virologist at the University of Reading, explained to The Guardian that the virus must adapt in animals before it can enter cells. Therefore, “it will modify the peak glycoprotein to make this happen effectively.”
He continued: “The danger is that the mutated virus could spread to the human body again and escape any response to the vaccine, which was originally designed for the original, non-mutated version of the spike glycoprotein, rather than adapt. The mink version. “
Finnish experts believe that Denmark’s decision to culminate all mink populations on the farm is too extreme. Instead, they suggest adopting control measures that are already effective in the country. None of the 150 mink farms in Finland are considered COVID-19 free.
For other experts, Stat noted that concerns that mutated viruses may pose a greater risk to humans may be overstated. It may be too early to come to a conclusion about the Danish coronavirus strain confirmed by the local government, and there are still many unknowns. Outside experts have not yet been exposed to the gene sequencing data. But Denmark has uploaded 500 gene sequences to a database open to researchers on Thursday and will upload more gene sequences.
The researchers told Stat that a single mutation may not be that dangerous, and it is good news that mutations are caught early; these things are generally not discovered until they spread more widely. The best example is SARS-CoV-2, the animal origin of which remains a mystery.
When this new type of coronavirus began to spread among humans, no one actively followed it. Now the entire team of geneticists is closely following SARS-CoV-2, so when a mutation occurs, it can be determined immediately. Mutation tracking is a critical step in ensuring that vaccines work. In this case, researchers may be one step ahead of a pathogen that has been shown to have pandemic potential.
