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Crown mutation in Germany? “The blockade should be longer and more intense”
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What we know so far about mutations in the virus
Until now, not much is known about the mutated variant of the coronavirus. Researchers assume that this variant will find it easier to spread from person to person. What is the main purpose of a virus? What do we have to adapt to now?
What does Britain’s mutated corona virus mean for Germany? In case it spreads in this country, the blockade must be stricter, demands the German Association of Hospitals.
reThe German Hospital Society (DKG) has spoken out in favor of tightening corona measures if Britain’s mutated virus also spreads in Germany. “The lockdown should be longer and more intense,” DKG president Gerald Gaß told the publishing network in Germany on Monday. That is a matter of statistics. “Only in this way could the incidents be achieved, which should be significantly lower than the current one. That’s the bitter truth, ”Gass emphasized.
The recently discovered variant of the coronavirus, which circulates in south-eastern Britain, is up to 70 percent more contagious than the previously known form, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. However, according to virologist Christian Drosten, the current information situation remains uneven.
Based on preliminary findings, experts in Britain and other countries are of the opinion that the new variant leads to new infections more easily. However, there is no evidence that the disease is fatal more often.
Patrick Vallance, scientific adviser to the UK government, said the new strain is spreading rapidly and is becoming the dominant variant of the virus in southern England. By December it was responsible for more than 60 percent of infections in London.
This worries researchers about the variant of the virus.
Aside from this rapid spread, scientists are also concerned that the variant has so many mutations, namely 23, some of them in the spike protein that the virus uses to infect cells. Existing vaccines also target this spike protein.
“That worries me, definitely, but it’s too early to say how important it will be in the end,” said Ravi Gupta, a virus researcher at the University of Cambridge in England.
Viruses mutate, that is part of their evolution. Often there are only very small changes. A slightly modified variant of a virus can become the dominant strain in a region or country, simply because it was the first to establish itself there or because it spread rapidly through so-called super-spreading events.
