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Bologna, December 20, 2020 – Global alarm for the Covid variant which is spreading rapidly in London and South EastEngland. The mutation of Coronavirus it would have a much higher transmissibility, about 70% more. Hard closing from today for the British capital and neighboring counties. Cases have also been reported in Denmark, the Netherlands and Australia. Many European countries, including Italy, the Netherlands and Belgium, are suspending connections to the UK or are in the process of doing so. But what do the experts think, also in relation to the new variant and the vaccination campaign that should start across the EU on December 27?
Franco Locatelli, president of the Superior Council of Health
“Variant of the coronavirus? I would like to reassure Italians that the answer to get out of this situation is the vaccine, in this we must place the utmost confidence due to the safety and efficacy profile.” “Even if there are mutations, such as those that were first reported in Britain and then elsewhere, it is very unlikely that the efficacy of the vaccine will be lost,” Locatelli told Che tempo che fa in Rai 3.
And to the question: will there be a ‘market’ for vaccines? Locatelli’s response was: “Absolutely not”, the vaccine “will be available to everyone.” Then the news: “For the summer we could also have the Italian vaccine” developed by ReiThera together with the Spallanzani Institute. And Locatelli assures: “All vaccines have safety requirements but also efficacy, those of Pfizer and Moderna are high. The Italian has completed phase 1 and the data are promising in safety and immune response without difference between old and young and very good and superior to that of cured subjects “.
Gianni Rezza, general director of Prevention of the Ministry of Health
“The Sars-CoV2 variant currently circulating in London and south-east England has mutations in the virus’s surface protein, the so-called Spike. Although it is hypothesized that these mutations may increase the transmissibility of the virus, they do not appear to alter neither clinical aggression nor response to the vaccine. “
Andrea Crisanti, dDirector of the Department of Molecular and Virological Medicine at the University of Padua
“We need to check if this variant is already in Italy and then give resources to the laboratories to carry out the sequencing. The more it spreads, the more diseases and deaths it causes, it is evident ”. The variant “appeared this summer in Spain and in fact has a higher R0 than the others. It is not known whether the immune response produced by the vaccines also covers this variant, it is a question for which there is still no answer.” However, such a thing has already happened “with the Shanghai variant that supplanted the Wuhan one.” What is happening, therefore, “is normal. It is not that we should not be alarmed but that we must try to understand what is happening, how much this caria is spreading compared to the other, if it is more virulent and if it really poses problems with the vaccine, all the questions to which we have no answer. “
What is the Covid variant in English and what are the risks?
Massimo Galli, head of infectious diseases at the Sacco in Milan
“This strain looks like it’s turning into the neighborhood bully. It is not the one that spreads the fastest, it is the one that spreads the best and becomes dominant in a narrow geographical area, which manages to impose itself. It does not mean that the virus is bad and you will die more, it means that this story is not over and you have to be careful. I don’t think the new
Covid variant is capable of rendering vaccines useless, it would not wrap my head. In any case, this gives us an important signal: we must vaccinate as quickly as possible as many people as possible and we will have to be very careful what happens. There are many conditions that could put us in position to run after virus with vaccines different but it is a logic that I hope does not concern the near future ”.
Matteo Bassetti, Director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino Hospital in Genoa
“It is not the first mutation and it will not be the last. Similar mutations had already been described in Spain and other countries. Viruses are constantly mutating. to survive. It cannot be excluded that this variant is already circulating in other countries, including Italy. We will have to continue studying the viral genome of the virus strains isolated in our country ”.
Fabrizio Pregliasco, Director of Health at IRCCS I
“It is premature to think that it could have a negative effect on vaccination. It is necessary to see exactly where the genetic variations are and how they affect the antibodies. The peculiarity of the virus, even of this mutant, which makes it perfidious, is that most of infections They are inapparent. Sars Cov1 infected symptomatically, so the infection was identified and could be extinguished. Here, however, there are asymptomatic and the thing escapes. It should be noted however, that compared to the past, our laboratories they have great capacity ‘to monitor changes and the synchronization of information is much faster, state of the art.’
“The English variant of Sars-Cov-2 must not escape the protection of vaccination.” In the worst case, however, “it would not be a question of having to start from scratch with experimentation but of updating the composition of the vaccine, as happens every year with the flu.”
Andrea Cossarizza immunologist from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia
“It is normal for a virus to mutate. The important thing is that you don’t do it too often, like HIV. And that the regions against which a vaccine induces do not vary
antibodies. The risk that vaccines will not work exists, even if it is minimal, and attention must be paid even after vaccination. The more people are infected, the more copies of the virus are generated, the greater the probability of mutation. “
Giorgio Palù, virologist and president of Aifa
“This virus certainly mutates, but it does so much less than other RNA viruses such as influenza, HCV, and HIV. A reassuring fact in this regard is the observation, made in preliminary studies carried out in volunteers, that the antibodies induced by vaccination also neutralize circulating viruses carrying mutations with respect to the original strain. In any case, this aspect,
as well as the duration of the immunity acquired with the vaccine, it will have to be evaluated later with the initiation of mass vaccination. Vaccination coverage may not be effective for everyone “
Carlo Federico Perno, Director of the Department of Microbiology, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital of the IRCCS in Rome,
“There is currently no evidence that the variant of the virus of Covid identified in Gb is less sensitive to the incoming vaccine, reducing its effectiveness. It is faster but not badder, at the moment there is no evidence that it is capable of doing more damage to the body and killing more. So far it has not yet been detected in Italy ”.
Walter Ricciardi, Director of the Ministry of Health
“At the moment, the British, who have been vaccinated for a week, have told us that the ability of the vaccine to protect us against this infection does not appear to be compromised.” And again: “The variant of the coronavirus has the same pathogenicity but is much more contagious and can increase transmissibility by up to 70%, it is more capable of entering the mucosa of our nose, it is not a problem of viral load but of penetration”.
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