Mutated Coronavirus: How to Adjust the Pump – There’s Something to Worry About

According to The Atlantic magazine’s website, a strain of coronavirus is spreading around the world.

It was first registered in the UK and from there it spread to other countries.

Viruses mutate all the time, usually without effects. However, the latest strain of COVID-19 is much more contagious.

This means that it spreads very easily.

Following the announcement that the virus, for the first time in the United States, had been detected in a colorless man from Colorado, another illness was reported a day later in California.

Many unknowns

There are many unknowns about the COVID-19 strain.

However, the main concern was whether the mutated virus would not reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine or cause more severe forms of the disease. Preliminary investigation has shown that this is not the case.

Although more data is needed to make us feel really calm, many researchers believe that this strain of coronavirus will not significantly reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine, if at all.

Health experts have begun to emphasize that there is a lack of evidence that disease caused by the mutated virus may be more serious.

Is everything okay and there is no need to worry? Not true, writes The Atlantic.

The most contagious strain of COVID-19 is a potential catastrophe.

In this pandemic stage, the most easily transmitted variant of the virus is, in some respects, much more dangerous than the more severe form of the disease.

Increased infectivity threatens to lead to an exponential increase in coronavirus morbidity.

At that time, a more severe form of the disease would only affect those with COVID-19.

We need to react quickly. Releasing the restrictions will be easier than repairing the damage caused by not reacting in time.

To understand the difference between exponential virus spread and linear risk, The Atlantic offers an example from Adam Kucharski, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who focuses on the mathematical analysis of infectious disease outbreaks.

A. Kucharskis compares 50 percent. increased mortality from the virus and 50 percent. increased infectivity.

Take about 1.1 percent of the virus reproduction rate and 0.8 percent risk of mortality from infection, and imagine 10,000. Active infections are a likely scenario for many European cities.

With these figures 129 deaths per month are expected.

If the death rate increased by 50%, it would mean 193 deaths.

If the infectivity of the virus were to increase by 50%, it would result in 978 deaths per month (assuming that in both scenarios, infection occurs within six days).

An increase in infectivity can expand the baseline situation very quickly: each newly infected person can infect many more.

And a more serious form of the disease would only affect an infected person.

This infection is certainly tragic, but the fact that a new strain of coronavirus does not show an increase in the severity or mortality of the disease means that it is not a greater threat to a person who could be infected.

However, it poses a greater threat to society as it can dramatically change the number of people infected, according to The Atlantic.

Vaccines have fewer risks

It is not yet clear to what extent a mutated coronavirus is most contagious.

However, preliminary estimates of the data suggest that it could be around 50-70%. more contagious than conventional COVID-19.

It is not yet clear exactly why it is transmitted more easily.

This strain of COVID-19, called B.1.1.7, has an unusually large number of genetic changes, especially in spike proteins.

The uncertainty about the exact mechanisms of the mutated virus means that we do not know if the tools currently in use – masks, distance keeping, and disinfection – are as effective as stopping the normal spread of COVID-19.

At the same time, The Atlantic points out that it is still a respiratory virus, so the basic preventive measures remain the same and are even more important: better masks, ventilation, more disinfection of surfaces.

By March, 50 to 100 million people in the United States could be vaccinated against the coronavirus. population.

First, vaccinated people are much less likely to become infected.

100 million vaccinated people will mean 100 million. people who have a much lower (or almost nonexistent) risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 or a particularly severe form of this infection.

Vaccines benefit not just those who are vaccinated, but everyone else.

Fewer people with a contagious virus means fewer people infected.