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Bill Gates, on Covid mutations. “We have spent a lot of time in the last year talking with colleagues at our foundation and around the world about how to test, treat, and prevent COVID-19.
In recent months, experts have been asking the same question: How will new coronavirus mutations influence our efforts to end the pandemic?“Writes Bill Gates.
The world has come a long way in the fight against COVID-19, but new variants of the virus could threaten the progress made in the past year.
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Bill Gates, on Covid mutations
Viruses are constantly evolving. The possibility of the flu rapidly evolving is the reason we receive a new flu vaccine every year. We need to update the vaccine annually to keep up with the ever-changing flu virus, says Bill Gates.
Most “bugs” lead to a virus that is functionally identical. But every once in a while, there is a change that makes the virus easier to spread or that affects the immune system. When this change begins to spread at the population level, a new variant appears.
„I know it seems like new things appear all the time. This is because many viruses circulate around the world, giving them more “opportunities” for change. Once the number of cases decreases, we will probably see new variants less often.“Explains the founder of Microsoft, according to Aleph News.
Compared to influenza viruses, which are made up of eight genetic segments that can be rearranged in many different ways, the coronavirus is a much simpler virus. The most notable mutations occurred in the same place: the protein spike.
This spike protein is the key to the spread of COVID. Its shape is what allows the virus to adhere to human cells. If the spike protein changes little, it can bind more efficiently to cells (making the virus more transmissible) or become more difficult for the immune system to handle.
This limited capacity for change may explain why we continue to see the same mutations occur in different places, in contrast to different variations.
Both B.1.1.7 (which was initially detected in the UK) and B.1.351 (which was first found in South Africa) evolved independently, but share a common set of mutations. Clearly, there is something that makes these specific mutations more likely to spread than other changes.
“The best way to prevent new variants is to stop transmission”
If we pay attention to social distance, put on a mask and get vaccinated, we will end the pandemic much sooner.
The more widespread the virus that causes COVID-19, the more likely it is to evolve. If vaccination is not done in every corner of the world, we will have to live with the risk of a more aggressive strain of the virus. We might even witness the emergence of a new variant, for which existing vaccines will no longer be effective.
„COVAX recently announced that it will be able to deliver 300 million doses by mid-2021. This is great news, but the world will need much more to truly eliminate the COVID-19 threat.
I hope that rich countries will continue to support COVAX activity, even if life begins to return to normal in some parts of the world during the summer.“, A never explained Bill Gates.
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