Even closing walls blindly would prevent coronavirus mutations – there’s only one way to stop them

Virus mutations are a natural process that occurs everywhere.

As the infectious disease specialist prof. Saulius Čaplinskas, this coronavirus has already crossed the species barrier, it has found itself in a new environment and its main goal is to reach the cells of the new host as soon as possible and more.

When a new cell reaches a virus, it seeks to infiltrate other cells as quickly as possible. This process takes place throughout nature due to natural selection: the virus seeks to survive and dominate.

“It just came to our attention then super sprinteriai, who are more likely to cover the distance, and when a new distance begins, he already has an advantage, because he began to work faster than others who were left behind ”, offered the comparative teacher.

The coronavirus is spreading very fast, with 126 million cases worldwide each year, and no one knows how many unreported infections there are. The faster the virus spreads, the greater the chance for mutation, as the virus is more likely to find an easier way to enter cells.

“It just came to our knowledge then. Even if the virus spreads only in Lithuania and spreads fairly quickly, as it is spreading now, it would also mutate in Lithuania. Closing the walls would not prevent the virus from spreading and mutating. Of course , the fewer people move, the less the virus will spread and the fewer people will come with an already mutated virus and the spread of mutations will be slower. But it will definitely not stop, “explained prof. S. Čaplinskas.

So simply put, even if the country is blindly closed to other countries, we shouldn’t expect to live with the same strain of the virus all the time. Like all organisms in nature, the virus struggles to adapt and gain an advantage over others.

“Blaming the man for driving somewhere and inhaling the air that contained the virus and for bringing it unknowingly, I don’t think is correct,” commented the interlocutor about the current public accusations against the travelers who allegedly brought the new variety to Lithuania.

So will virus strains really show up again and again and the end won’t be seen?

“It just came to our attention then. But the fewer infected people there are, the less chance the virus will mutate. The more people get sick or get vaccinated, the more the virus will have nowhere to mutate. This will slow down the spread of the virus and the mutations. The probability is that after 3-4 years the virus circulates in society, it will not disappear anywhere, but it will no longer circulate as aggressively as other coronaviruses, such as the seasonal flu virus, “said Prof. S. Čaplinskas.

The South African mutation is currently believed not to protect against currently available vaccines. If this variety became dominant in Lithuania, why would it still be worth vaccinating?

The interviewee gave 2 main reasons. The first reason is that this would reduce the chance for the virus to mutate, as it would slow down the spread.

“Second, without vaccination today, a person can become infected and seriously ill tomorrow. Even if they are infected with a mutated strain of the virus, some cross-protection is likely to remain and memory cells will form. This means they would be in a lighter form than an unvaccinated person, “said prof. S. Čaplinskas.

According to him, the fight against varieties is a race against time: it will be faster and smarter, be it scientific or biological.

“For an ordinary person, mutations in the virus do not change anything and our behavior must remain the same as before, exactly the same security measures,” warned the interlocutor.

However, mutation analysis is important for epidemiologists to discover where the virus is spreading and for researchers to be able to quickly change the composition of vaccines.

“We live in an era in which vaccines are being developed extremely quickly, safely and efficiently. This means that there are technologies for the development of vaccines that it is possible to change the composition of the vaccine very quickly and improve it according to the varieties that appear. ”Said Prof S. Čaplinskas.