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It is normal for viruses to mutate, and most end up dying without proliferating or, in practice, they do not represent any significant change in the behavior of these organisms. In the case of the new coronavirus, suspicions have been raised that the recently identified strain in the UK is actually a new mutation of the infectious agent.
Temporarily referred to as VUI 202012/01, as it is a ‘Research Variant’ (‘Research Variant’, discovered in December 2020), this organism will take weeks to be studied until it can be concluded that it is, in fact, a mutation with a different risk to human health.
This possibility was raised by the rapid spread that occurred in the south of the United Kingdom, and it was even considered that this new strain could be up to 70 times more contagious than the most common in Europe.
The rapid acceleration of the pandemic in the region forced new, even more restrictive measures, with the British Health Minister speaking even in a situation “out of control”, this in an interview with Sky News. There are also reports of cases of infection by this new strain that have reached Wales, the Netherlands, Denmark and even Australia. There have already been several countries that have also tightened control of travel between their territory and the British Isles.
Although these conclusions still lack scientific evidence, there appears to be strong evidence to support this theory. Unlike other strains of the new coronavirus that have been identified in Europe since the outbreak of the pandemic, such as the one that forced the killing of millions of minks on Danish mammal farms, it appears, in fact, to behave differently in terms of contagion between humans.
Specifically, VUI 202012/01 shows a change in peplomers, the prominent structures that are located on the surface of the virus and that are responsible for its adhesion to the tissues of the host organism.
However, the main concern is related to the effects of an infection. So far this seems similar to what happened with the more common European strain.
However, the impact of this change on the effects caused by the infection in infected humans seems limited, as pointed out by several specialists who point out the stable rates of hospitalizations for cases of infection. If the new strain had affected the human body differently, this ratio would have changed significantly, as the director general of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Ewan Birney, told The Guardian.
Another relevant question is how this mutation was formed, something that scientists hope to be able to answer in the near future.
Considering the low probabilities of a change in the severity of the infection, the most relevant doubts are related to the interaction of the already approved vaccines and those that are still in development with this new strain of the virus. Despite training the immune system of those vaccinated to deal with and neutralize these peplomers, officials at Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford say they trust the drugs’ ability to create resistance to the spread of the virus.
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