There are reports from Britain and South Africa of new coronavirus strains that appear to be spreading more easily causing panic, but virus experts say it is unclear whether that is true or whether they have any concerns about vaccines. or causing a more severe disease.
Viruses grow naturally as they move through the population, some as well as others. One reason is that we need a new picture of flu every year.
New variants, or strains, of the virus that causes COVID-19 have been seen almost since it was first discovered in China nearly a year ago.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new restrictions because of the new pressure, and several EU countries blocked or restricted some flights from the UK in an attempt to restrict any emissions.
Here is what is known about the situation.
WHAT INCLUDES A STRAIN BASIS IN ENGLAND?
Health experts in the UK and US said the strain appears to suffer more easily than others, but there is still no evidence that it is more lethal.
Patrick Vallance, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, said the strain was “moving fast and becoming the main variable,” causing more than 60% of diseases in London by December.
The strain is also worrying because it has so many strains – nearly two dozen – and some has the spiky protein that the virus uses to bind to and infect cells. That spike is what the conventional vaccines aim for.
“I’m worried about this, for sure,” but it’s too early to know how important it will ultimately be, said Dr Ravi Gupta, who studies viruses at Cambridge University. England. He and other researchers submitted a report off on a website used by scientists to share developments quickly, but the paper has not been formally reviewed or published in a journal.
HOW ARE THESE NEW STRANGES OCCUR?
Viruses often get small changes of a letter or two in their genetic alphabet just through normal evolution. Slightly altered snoring can be the most common in a country or region simply because it was the pressure that took hold there or because “super spreader” events helped it to engage.
A bigger concern is when a virus moves by altering the proteins on its surface to help it escape from drugs or the immune system.
“Emerging evidence” reveals that the new coronavirus may be starting to occur, wrote Trevor Bedford, a biologist and geneticist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, on Twitter. “We have now seen and disseminated a number of changes” reflecting this, and some appear to be against antibody treatments, he said.
WHAT OTHER STRANGES HAVE BEEN MADE?
In April, researchers in Sweden discovered a virus with two genetic variants that appeared to make it about twice as infectious, Gupta said. Around 6,000 cases have been reported worldwide, mostly in Denmark and England, he said.
A number of such changes have now turned up. Some have been reported in humans from mink farms in Denmark. The two changes seen before, and others, are the new snoring of South Africa.
Both variations and more on the UK one, include eight to the spike protein, Gupta said. It’s called a “variable under investigation” because its significance is still unknown.
The strain was identified in the south-east of England in September and has been circulating in the area ever since, an official from the World Health Organization told the BBC on Sunday.
CAN COVID-19 PEOPLE FROM OLD STRAIN TAKE THE SAME ONE? CAN IT BE INVOLVED?
Probably not, former U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
“Surprisingly,” agreed Gupta.
Surgeon General Joe Biden, Vivek Murthy, told NBC on Sunday “Meet the Press” that there is “no reason to believe that the vaccines developed will not be effective against this virus either.”
Vaccines elicit broader responses by the immune system than just those to the spike protein, several experts noted.
The potential for new rays against existing vaccines is low, but they are not “unsustainable,” Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for the U.S. government’s vaccination effort, said Sunday. “Union State CNN. ”
“So far, I don’t think there was one variant that would oppose it,” he said. “I don’t think this particular variation in the UK has exceeded the immunity of the vaccine.”
Bedford agreed.
“I’m not worried” because a lot of changes in the genetic code might be needed to weaken the vaccine, not just a mutation or two, Bedford wrote on Twitter. But vaccines may need good dressing over time as changes accumulate, and changes should be monitored more closely, he wrote.
Murthy said the new strain will not change public health advice to wear masks, wash hands and maintain social pace.
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Associated news writers John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, and Sylvia Hui in London made a statement.
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