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The United Kingdom has informed the World Health Organization (WHO) that a new variant of the new coronavirus, identified on Thursday by British authorities, could spread more rapidly, British Health Director-General Chris announced on Saturday. Whitty. At a time when world hope was at the beginning of vaccination and, with the arrival of a new year, the attempt to end the pandemic, the news from the United Kingdom is the gift in the shoe that nobody wanted to receive. Almost a year ago, the world became familiar with the uncertainty of science in the face of a new virus and this is yet another chapter in the history of Covid-19.
A new strain of Sars-Cov2 has been identified, which gives rise to Covid-19. British researchers identified it in the south of England, in London or Kent, in late September. Patrick Vallance, scientific adviser to the British government, explained this Saturday that the new variant has “23 changes, many associated with changes in the protein used by the virus.” Nick Loman, University of Birmingham [que integra a equipa que tem estado a monitorizar e a sequenciar novas variantes do Sars-Cov2], had already stated that some of these mutations had occurred in the protein spike (the protein that the coronavirus uses to penetrate cells and is also the target of antibodies produced by the immune system after infection) and that these can alter the shape of the virus.
At a press conference, Boris Johnson said that this new strain could be up to 70% more transmittable and that it is spreading more rapidly in London and southwest London, but “does not appear to be more dangerous” than previously identified. Even so, Boris Jonshon -who presented more restrictive measures for the festive season at a press conference- warned of the possibility that the transmissibility factor (Rt) could increase by 0.4 with the hypothesis of 70% more transmission than in the original disease. .
Still, and even after the UK notified the World Health Organization of this new strain, WHO scientists have yet to comment after the latest information from the British government.
No, viruses are constantly changing. Just remember that the seasonal flu virus, for example, each year requires the manufacture of a new vaccine, adapted to the strain circulating that year. In November, they had already been identified 12,706 Sars-Cov2 mutationsBut researchers at University College London concluded, however, that these mutations had not made the virus more contagious.
COVID-19. Mutations discovered in the coronavirus did not make it more contagious
Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a UK foundation specializing in biomedical research, noted on Twitter that “the more the virus spreads and circulates, under immune pressure, the more likely it is to mutate, evolve and change.”
There are very recent examples of other strains of the coronavirus. South Africa, for example, announced on Friday that it had detected a new variant. The case of the strain detected in Denmark and which forced the authorities to order the death of thousands of minks (minks) is just over a month old and, at the end of summer, the Spanish strain of Sars-Cov2 was also mentioned.
The speed at which the new strain of Sars-Cov2 spread was what first caught the researchers’ attention. As of December 13, 1,108 cases of Covid-19 with the variant had been identified, mainly in the south of England. And the number was taken into account since only a small part of the virus samples are sequenced, of that small part the number of times the strain was identified was enough to alert the researchers.
According to England’s Director General of Health Chris Whitty, there is still no evidence that this new variant causes higher mortality or that it may have an impact on already approved vaccines and available treatments. The certainty, for now, seems to be “spreading rapidly.”
But for now, there is no evidence that the new strain of Sars-Cov2 causes more serious illness. So far, nothing suggests that the variation alters the response of the immune system, so according to Patrick Vallance, scientific adviser to the British government, vaccines should be “suitable for this virus.”
“Transmission is the big change in this strain, so we have to reduce the contacts to reduce its ability to spread,” Vallance said.
However, we still have to consider, in relation to the issue of increased transmissibility, the fact that this strain has spread more rapidly in specific regions of the UK. Researchers don’t yet have an answer to this specificity (and why it doesn’t have an identical spread across the country).
It will not be easy to give concrete figures at this time. Not all virus samples are sequenced, so there are only estimates in relation to the proportion of the new strain compared to the old one. Still, Patrick Vallance said at a press conference this Saturday that by mid-November about 28% of the cases identified in London were of this new strain, but by December 9 that rate had already exceeded 60%.
“In London, more than 60% of the new cases were of the new variant, which means that not only is it moving faster but it is also becoming dominant in terms of transmission,” Vallance said.
There is also no evidence to that effect. Chris Witty says that the information available does not allow us to conclude that this new variant “may have an impact on already approved vaccines and available treatments.” Even so, the official asked “now, more than ever,” that citizens comply with the regulations “to reduce transmission.”
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