Covid-19 has undergone many mutations throughout the year, but the appearance of the new variant in the United Kingdom has raised the alarm in the country. The new variant VUI – 202012/01, also known as the B.1.1.7 lineage, is suspected to be the reason for the sharp increase in cases in the country. Furthermore, scientists and researchers have said that this new strain has a much higher transmissibility than compared to the previous variant.
At a time when several countries around the world are waiting for an effective Covid vaccine, the The discovery of the new variant of the coronavirus has raised several questions. – Is there an increased risk to health? Will it have an impact on the vaccine or treatment? Can a vaccine stop the new strain of coronavirus? This is all you need to know about the impact of the new variant of Covid-19 that has alerted authorities in the UK.
‘VIRUSES MUTE ALL THE TIME’
It is normal for viruses to mutate all the time. Most of the new variants disappear, but there are occasions when they spread without altering the behavior of the virus. They rarely cause drastic changes.
“This is quite normal for viruses, such as influenza, where different viruses can infect the same person, leading to the appearance of a hybrid virus.. This is just one way in which natural viral variation arises, “explained Dr. Julian Tang, a clinical virologist at the University of Leicester.
(Photo: Reuters)
Since the outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, China, the new coronavirus, which has claimed the lives of millions worldwide in one year, has undergone multiple mutations.
In early November, the United States reported that more than 15,000 minks in the country had died from the coronavirus since August. Denmark had also decided to cull its mink population of up to 17 million, saying that a mutated coronavirus strain could pass to humans and evade future Covid-19 vaccines.
Following this, a Danish vaccine specialist warned that the Covid-19 variant of the mink could start a new wave of coronavirus, a report in The Guardian said.
Professor Kare Molbak, a vaccine expert and director of infectious diseases at the State Serum Institute (SSI) in Denmark, told The Guardian: “The worst case scenario is that we start a new pandemic in Denmark. There is a risk that this Mutated virus is so different from others that we would have to put new things in a vaccine and therefore [the mutation] It would hit us all in the whole world from the beginning. “
In October, a variant of the coronavirus, originating in Spanish farm workers, was found to be rapidly spreading across Europe, accounting for the majority of cases in the UK.
However, in neither case were the variants found to increase disease transmission – which is not the case with the VUI-202012/01 variant.
The new variant contains 23 different changes, many of them associated with alterations in a protein produced by the virus. Preliminary genomic characterization suggests that the UK variant B.1.1.7 has an unusually large number of genetic changes, particularly in the spike protein that is often responsible for how the virus interacts with a human cell.
ANY THREATS FROM THE NEW COVID VARIANT?
The UK announced last week that a new strain of The Covid-19 identified there may spread more rapidly and work is urgently underway to confirm that it does not cause a higher death rate. US Health Secretary Matt Hancock also warned and suggested that parts of England will be trapped in the new upper level of Covid-19 restrictions until a vaccine is implemented.
According to Reuters, the new variant is believed to have first occurred in mid-September in London or Kent in south-east England.
UK analysis suggests the new strain may be up to 70% more transmissible than the previous variant. However, there is no evidence to show that it is more lethal or causes more serious disease.
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson (Photo: AFP)
According to a report by The Guardian, Ewan Birney, deputy director general of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and deputy director of its European Institute of Bioinformatics in Cambridge, said: “If the new variant was going to have a big impact on the severity of the disease, we would have already seen it. “
CAN THE VACCINE STOP THE NEW COVID STRAIN?
There is no evidence to suggest that the vaccines will be less effective against the new variant, said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Experts have found no reason to suggest that the new mutation would still affect vaccination. The UK government’s advisory body, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (NERVTAG), has also published a paper on this.
“We are not seeing any increase in virulence [clinical severity] or any sudden change in the S [spike protein] that will reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine, until now, “said Dr. Tang in response to the NERVTAG article.
Dr. Jeremy Farrar, Director of the Wellcome Trust, agrees, but gives a warning. He said: “At the moment, there is no indication that this new strain eludes treatments and vaccines. However, the mutation is a reminder of the power of the virus to adapt and that cannot be ruled out in the future.”
Additionally, The Guardian quoted Birney as saying that the vaccines have been tested with many variants of the virus in circulation. “So there are many reasons to think that vaccines will continue to work against this new strain, although it obviously needs to be thoroughly tested.”
Meanwhile, Britain’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Vallance said The Covid-19 vaccines appeared to be adequate to generate an immune response to the variant of the coronavirus.
WHY IS THE UK VARIANT IMPORTANT?
The reason that has set off alarms in the UK and thus elsewhere is: first, this particular lineage accounts for a growing proportion of cases in parts of the UK, and second, the number of linked cases , as well as the regions that report B.1.1. 7 infections have been growing.
On Saturday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson imposed stricter restrictions on coronavirus over millions of people in England and plans largely reversed to ease restrictions over Christmas as the country battles a new, more infectious strain of the virus.
The Indian government is also seeking expert advice in this regard.
(Photo: AFP)
WHAT IS A MUTATION?
A mutation is a change in the genetic material of an organism. When a virus makes millions of copies of itself and moves from host to host, not all copies are identical. These tiny mutations build up as the virus spreads and copies itself over and over again.
(With input from Reuters)
