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the coronavirus Has it changed yet? Yes, and according to the information BBC, the United Kingdom has informed the World Health Organization (WHO) that it has identified a variant in south-east England that appears to circulate at speed greater than the virus known so far. The alarm is understandable, especially now that the vaccine has arrived, but Chris Whitty, head of the health authority in England, argued the current lack of evidence about the possible greater lethality of this variant still under study.
If it has not yet been possible to assess the incidence of virus Regarding the population in terms of lethality, there is another aspect that seems to worry the UK to the point of convincing Boris Johnson to call an emergency meeting of the government: transmissibility. The speed and aggressiveness of this variant seems significantly higher than that known so far, so much so that more severe containment measures have been implemented to prevent its circulation. The area in which the variant of the English coronavirus would have developed is in which London is also located, a densely populated metropolis where contacts with people are almost inevitable if not prevented. So far there are more than a thousand infections of SARS-CoV-2 changed that have been reported in around 60 locations. The mutation of the virus is not surprising, since at the biological level they are very basic organisms whose sole objective is to reproduce. To do this, they must continuously adapt to the cells of the organism that they infect. Some mutations favor its diffusion, others block it, as in the most classical evolutionary processes.
If Sars-Cov-2 were to evolve into a more lethal form, it would not be to the advantage of the virus, which instead tries to become more transmissible. This was explained by Sir Mark Walport, a member of the British government’s scientific advisory group for emergencies, the new variant of Boris Johnson. Walport explained to BBC what has so far been understood about this new variant English: “We know this is a new variant, it has been seen in other countries, and it seems to be quite widespread already, suggesting it has a streaming advantage. Scientists are working very hard to understand, but it definitely seems possible that this strain is more easily transmitted. Will make the spacing even more problematic social“The biggest concern is about the vaccine, but British Health Minister Matt Hancock said:”The latest scientific report defines the possibility that this mutation may not respond to a highly unlikely vaccine“Even screening tests and treatments should not be changed for detection.
At 10 Downing Street, the concern is greater. Boris johnson spoke immediately after the extraordinary meeting and announced a closure for the UK from tomorrow, with even stricter measures for London and the entire south-east of England: “With heavy hearts, I must announce that we cannot have the Christmas we had planned“In the capital, taken to level 4, it will be forbidden to meet with family groups other than yours, which means zero guests at Christmas.”They will be restrictions similar to those adopted in November“Boris Johnson continued, forced to take a sharp retreat from the local epidemic situation. Just a few days ago he defended the holidays:”Inhumane cancel ChristmasSo stop by all the non-essential stores and indoor gyms. If it is not possible to do the opposite, start smartworking and stop moving from the red zones, to block this new highly transmissible variant. The measures will be valid for two weeks but already on December 30 the government planned a review: “If the facts change, the focus must be changed. When the virus changes its attack method, we must change our defense method“.
This is not the first variation of the coronavirus since it was discovered. “In Italy there are 13 different viral strains, but the DG614 mutation that we identified last March and that made the virus more contagious was found in 98% of the Italian genomic sequences stored in the database. What do these results tell us? The pathogenicity of the virus has not changed: it has not become more nor less bad“, explained to The impression Massimo Ciccozzi, head of the Medical Statistics and Epidemiology Unit of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Bio-Medical Campus of the University of Rome. There have also been guarantees about the efficacy of vaccines in case of mutations such as those observed so far: “This virus mutates, but the mutations are induced by our immune system, so some type of adaptation is taking place. I am convinced that in the end he will ‘give up’, thanks to the vaccination, and adapt to us. And the good news is that the mutations we see do not appear to involve the Spike protein, on which mRNA vaccines are based.“.
The virus mutation is certainly not new to the scientific community: “The virus mutates up to 100 times less thanHIV. This increases the hope of developing effective vaccines.These words come from Spallanzani in Rome. Probably Sars-Cov-2 will not disappear soon from the population and will continue to change and circulate but in a different way and, also thanks to the vaccine, it will probably significantly reduce its impact on the population.
