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The new variant The coronavirus discovered in the United Kingdom and also identified in Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark and Italy will have consequences in vaccine? While in Europe and in the world anti-Covid vaccines, is concerned about the impact of the new mutation on the drug’s efficacy.
Most experts, however, are optimistic at this point. Although this variant appears to have a higher transmissibility than the “parent strain”, it has not been shown to be more serious and dangerous, and it is assumed that validity of vaccines developed up to now and is distributed worldwide is not engaged. “But we need more solid information”, explained the Minister of Health Esperanza.
Covid vaccine: does it work against the English variant?
German Health Minister Jens Spahn was also optimistic when speaking to the public broadcaster Zdf, he said: “Based on what we know so far, the virus mutation has no impact on vaccines, which remain effective, citing expert conversations with European authorities.”.
“The presence, in the new variant, of some mutations in well-defined areas of the Spike protein does not make me particularly concerned about the effectiveness of the next vaccines: the vaccination-induced antibodies will still be able to bind to the vast majority of the surface protein. Spike that hasn’t changed “. This is the comment of Giacomo Gorini, a researcher at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, who works with AstraZeneca on the development and testing of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Therefore, at this time, the vaccine plan in Italy and in Europe continues at full speed. Authorization for emergency use of the candidate developed by Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, is actually scheduled for December 21 by Ema, the European drug agency.
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The virologist is not convinced of the unaltered effectiveness of the vaccines on the new variant of the coronavirus Andrea Crisanti: “It is not known whether the immune response produced by vaccines also covers this variant.“, He told theAdnkronos.
The scientist said it is important “check if this variant is already in Italy“. The new lineage of the virus appeared, explained Crisanti”.this summer in Spain and in fact has a higher R0 than the others”.
What is happening does not surprise scientists: “The coronavirus is constantly mutating and there are many variants with one or more mutations. In July there were already at least 12,000 “mutants”. The number will now be higher, although many mutations are rare and the viruses that carry them often die. “explains Nick Loman, a researcher at the University of Birmingham who is studying mutations in the virus.
A SARS-Cov-2 mutation has also been identified in Italy, present in March in 5% of people who contracted the virus and now in 100% of those infected: called 614 D, it is the variable that facilitates it. the epidemic, which partly explains the second wave of infections.
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But the vaccine is not the only node in the new English variant. The WHO has reported that it may affect the performance of some diagnostic tests. In essence, the swabs may not recognize the mutated virus and continuous updates are required to detect continuous mutations.
