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New crown disease(COVID-19)In the year since its appearance, nearly 75 million people have been infected worldwide, causing more than 1.6 million deaths, and the virus continues to change. One of the variants that scientists have noticed is the one that occurred on the mink farm. Recently, the British new corona virus The number of infections is increasing exponentially and experts speculate that it may also be related to a new variant of the virus.
Many regions, including London, are now experiencing a significant increase in virus infections, forcing the British government to upgrade to a three-tier status, prohibiting indoor social media, bars, pubs and restaurants from being closed. Local officials in some London boroughs have advised schools to close and move to online learning.
In addition, scientists have discovered a new variant of the virus in south-east England, and more than 1,000 people have been infected with this variant of the virus. World Health Organization(WHO)It indicates that global health agencies have paid attention to the new strains reported in the UK and are working with the UK and other health authorities to assess whether the reported mutations will change the behavior of the virus.
Scientists believe that the evolution and mutation of viruses are common. There is currently no information to show that new virus variants in London are more deadly or spread more easily, and most mutations have little impact on human disease. The WHO also stated that there is currently no evidence that this variant behaves differently. Scientists will further study the new variant to see if there may be differences in the way it triggers an immune response in the human body.
BBC It is also noted that there is no clear evidence that new variants of the coronavirus can spread more easily, cause more severe symptoms or render the vaccine useless. However, scientists are paying close attention to two reasons: The first is that where there are more cases of infection, the level of the variant is higher, indicating that the virus may have mutated to an easier spreading type. . Another issue that has caught the attention of the scientific community is how the virus mutates.
UK COVID-19 Scientists from the Genomics Alliance said:COVID-19 You have a surprisingly large number of mutations that exceeded your expectations. Two notable groups of mutations are found in key spiny proteins, which are keys used by viruses to unlock access to and hijack human cells. One of the mutations mentioned is the mink virus.
It is worrying that antibodies in the blood of survivors are less effective in attacking this variant of the virus, but laboratory studies are needed to confirm this. Additionally, mutations in the spike protein have made people question vaccines because Pfizer,Modern The three main vaccines from Oxford and Oxford train the immune system to attack spiny proteins. But the human body learns to attack multiple parts of the spiny protein, so British health officials still believe that this vaccine can resist this variant.
The report states that “the coronavirus is still testing different combinations of mutations to correctly infect humans. Soon, mass vaccination will put another kind of pressure on the virus because it must be changed to infect people who are already immune. If this promotes A As the virus evolves, we may need to update the vaccine regularly, as with the flu, to keep up with the trend. “
A viral immunologist at the University of Birmingham reassures everyone: “This virus does not mutate as fast as the influenza virus. Although we must monitor it, it is not an important task if the vaccine needs to be updated in the future.
According to Johns Hopkins University(Johns Hopkins University)According to the data, on the 13th, Italy has overtaken the United Kingdom and has become the country with the highest number of confirmed deaths from coronavirus in Europe, but the death toll in both countries exceeded 6.4 One million people Nearly diagnosed in the UK so far 190 One million people.
(Source of the first image: Flickr / Pedro Szekely CC By 2.0)
New knowledge of science and technology, updated from time to time
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