Covid, the new variant of the widespread coronavirus in Great Britain- Corriere.it

Spread is up to 70 percent faster

Whitty said the UK has informed the WHO that the new coronavirus strain, which contains 23 code differences from the standard sequence, can spread up to 70 percent faster: As a result of the rapid adoption of the new variant, preliminary modeling data, and rapidly increasing incidence rates in the Southeast, the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (Nervtag) that the new strain can spread more quicklyread Whitty’s official statement. According to the UK’s chief scientific advisor, Patrick Vallance, the number of people admitted to hospitals in London and the south-east of the UK rose sharply in December.

Has the lethality of the mutation changed?

According to Whitty, the malice of the new strain would be no greater than seen so far: the odds of going to the hospital or dying after being infected with this Sars-CoV-2 mutation appear to be more or less identical to those observed above. Whitty specified that urgent studies are underway to confirm this finding. We need to understand the meaning of the variant in terms of contagion, but also its effect on therapies and vaccines – said Mike Ryan, head of emergency operations at the World Health Organization (WHO) a few days ago. Many different variants of coronavirus have been reported, this one appears to be prevalent in Britain. Now the questions are: generalized internationally? Does it make the virus more aggressive? Does it interfere with medications and vaccines? At the moment we do not have information in this regard, but it is important to study the mutation to understand if it is significant.

The variant may already be in other countries

The new variant of the virus, Vallance said, was discovered in mid-September in London and Kent. In December, he added, become the “dominant variant” in London. In the week ending November 18, the variant was found in one in four cases in London and the southeast of England and the east of England. In the week ending December 9, the variant was found in 62% of cases in London, 59% in the east of England and 43% in the south east. According to Vallance, we think that this new variant may already be in other countries. He may have left here, but we don’t know for sure.

Vaccines should work

Vallance explained that the coronavirus vaccines currently approved in Britain, that of Moderna and Pfizer, which are based on mRNA technology, appear to provide an adequate response to this new variant as well, but with new stricter measures. they are essential to keep this mutation under control.

Variants already in circulation

As Laura Cuppini wrote here, all viruses develop mutations, changes in the individual letters of their genetic code that can be grouped into new variants and strains. These mutations do not necessarily lead to detectable changes in transmissibility or pathogenicity. The goal of a virus is to adapt to the host to replicate: an advantageous change in transmissibility, while increased lethality does not help the virus to spread, since when the host dies, the pathogen also disappears. Sars-CoV-2 had already mutated: In June, scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida had identified a variant, significant for the transmissibility of Sars-CoV-2, in a gene that encodes the spike protein (gene D614G). Researchers have shown that this mutation has the effect of significantly increasing the number of functional peaks (that can penetrate cells) on the surface of the virus: the consequence that each virus particle is almost 10 times more infectious, at least in the laboratory. compared to other strains. Genomic analyzes showed that this variant (called D) became dominant after the outbreak began in China and could explain why the coronavirus has spread so widely in Europe, the United States, and Latin America. Then, at the beginning of November, an international team of scientists traced the origin of the second European wave to Spain, precisely in an outbreak that began among agricultural workers and quickly spread among people returning from vacation. The analysis identified a variant called 20A.EU1, which quickly spread across much of Europe and the UK. A few days later, attention turned to Denmark, where the government had millions of minks slaughtered in more than 1,000 herds. Reason: concern about a mutation that has infected these animals (and some breeders) and that could interfere with the effectiveness of the vaccines. The variant, found in people who had contracted the mink infection, seemed extremely concerning because it can weaken the formation of antibodies.