B.1.1.7: What the experts have been saying so far about the consequences of the new Corona variant

Stand: 10:01 pm | Reading time: 3 minutes

“Out of control”. “Up to 70 percent more contagious.” These were startling words from the British government over the weekend about the newly discovered coronavirus mutation. According to Boris Johnson, the pathogen is spreading much faster than previously known. At least, the prime minister said, there has been no evidence so far that the new crown variant is more deadly.

So far, experts around the world have been cautious in their assessment. According to initial analyzes by British scientists, the new variant has an unusually large number of genetic changes, especially in the spike protein. This protein is required by the virus to enter cells.

Mutations don’t necessarily give the virus a selection advantage, even if that’s possible, explained corona expert Christian Drosten of the Berlin Charité. A selection advantage can facilitate the spread of a virus. B.1.1.7, as the new virus line is called, has “two possibly reinforcing mutations and one probably weakening”. According to Drosten, the variant has not yet appeared in Germany.

Virologist Alexander Kekulé sees clear evidence that the virus mutation that appeared in Britain is much more contagious, he told “MDR Aktuell”. “In London, for example, a little over half of all new infections can be traced back to this new strain.” SPD epidemiologist and politician Karl Lauterbach spoke more cautiously. The mutation is not unlikely to be more contagious than the original corona virus, Funke told media.

The British Advisory Group on New Respiratory Virus Threats points to the possibility that the variant “is antigenically different from previous variants”. There are indications of four reinfections in people who have already come into contact with another variant of the virus.

Richard Neher, a professor at the Biozentrum at the University of Basel, said in the “Zeit” however that there was “no reason to panic”. Because vaccines that have already been investigated probably would not lose their effectiveness. It takes a whole series of mutations for a vaccine to be truly useless for a large part of the population. “The human immune system recognizes the spike protein in many of its places and fights it off,” says Neher.

Vaccines at risk?

Jesse Bloom, a biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, also dismisses the worst-case scenario in the “New York Times”: “No one should be concerned that there is a single catastrophic mutation suddenly affecting all immunity.” and it makes the antibodies unusable. “

Kristian Andersen, director of infectious diseases at the Scripps Research Institute in California, recommended caution. “I have seen many articles that say ‘no immunity, vaccine or clinical features.’ That is not right. The fact is, we don’t know, but we will know in the next few weeks. “

The German virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit referred on Twitter to the statements of an American colleague who assumes that “the strain used in the vaccine must be updated with some regularity.”

And Ewan Birney, deputy director general of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, is currently ruling out very different symptoms from the new variant of the virus. “If the new variant had a major impact on the course of the disease, we would have already seen it,” Birney told The Guardian.

Due to the new variant of the virus, flights from Britain to Germany will be banned from midnight, according to an order from the Federal Ministry of Transport on Sunday. In addition, a regulation will apply on Monday, which will then also restrict all entries from South Africa, as announced by the Ministry of Health.