Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva on January 12, 2020.
Fabrice Coffreny | AFP by Getty Images
World Health Organization officials said Monday that the coronavirus is mutating “at a much slower rate” than seasonal influenza, with officials in the UK announcing this week that a new mutation of the virus allows it to spread more easily.
Seasonal influenza changes so often that scientists have to regularly develop new vaccines each year to inoculate the population against the virus. UK officials have told the WHO that the Covid-19 vaccine appears to be just as effective against new strains, but more research is needed. While all viruses mutate naturally, not every mutation makes the virus more contagious or more viral.
“SARS-CV-2 is evolving at a much slower rate than influenza,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminath told a press briefing. “And yet, despite the many changes we’ve seen and the many mutations we’ve seen, no one has had a significant impact on the susceptibility of the virus to any of the treatments, drugs or vaccines currently under development, and one hopes that will continue.” . “
WHO officials reiterated that UK officials said the new strain of the virus could be transmissible up to 70% of the original strain. Dr Mike Rhean, executive director of the WHO’s health emergency program, said it was unclear whether the outbreak in the UK was due to change or human behavior.
“We have seen a small increase in the number of reproductions in the UK,” he said, adding that the virus spreads faster, which could mean it is more contagious or spreads more easily in the colder months. This could also mean that people are becoming more relaxed about following public health protocols. “It remains to be seen how much of that is due to the specific genetic variation of the new variable. I suspect some.”
Maria Van Kirkov, head of the WHO’s Mer Filling Diseases and Zoonosis Unit, said UK officials estimated that the change would cause the virus to reproduce at a rate of 1.1 to 1. An increase of 1.5. This means that each person infected with the variable is estimated to infect 1.5 other people, more than 1.1 when infected with the original variant.
He added that officials are investigating three elements of the new variable. He said scientists are investigating whether it spreads more easily, whether it causes more or less serious illness, and how antibodies respond to infection. Van Kerkov and others insisted that no effect was seen on the effectiveness of the covid vaccine on the new type.
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