Does it spread easier? Making people sicker? Meaning that medications and vaccines do not work? Questions are multiplying as fast as new strains of the coronavirus, especially the one now migrating through England. Scientists say there is cause for concern but the new series should not scare him.
“There is no evidence of any increase in depth” COVID-19 from the latest snort, World Health Organization emergency chief Dr Michael Ryan said on Monday.
“We don’t want to do too much,” U.S. government chief infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN.
Concerns have been growing since Saturday, when the British prime minister said a new snort, or variant, of the coronavirus appeared to be spreading more easily than earlier ones and moving rapidly through England. Dozens of countries have banned flights from the UK, and the south of England under strict locking measures.
Here are some questions and answers about what we know about the virus so far.
Q: WHY IS THIS NEW STRANGE COMING?
A: New changes have been seen almost since the virus was first discovered in China nearly a year ago. Viruses often suppress, or develop small changes, as they reproduce and move through a population – something “that is natural and expected,” the WHO said in a statement Monday.
“Most mutations are very small. It’s a change of a few letters in the genetic alphabet that doesn’t make much of a difference in the ability to cause disease, ”said Dr Philip Landrigan, a former Center for Disease Control and Prevention scientist global health at Boston College.
A more troubling situation is when a virus moves by altering the proteins on its surface to help it escape from drugs or the immune system, or if it undergoes many changes that make it make it very different from previous versions.
Q: HOW DOES ONE STRAIN INCLUDE?
A: This can happen if there is one strain as a “founder” – the first one to capture and disperse in an area, or because “super spreader” events helped set it up.
It can also happen if mutation benefits a new variant, such as helping it to spread more easily than other circulating strands, as is the case in Britain.
“It’s more contagious than the original weight,” Landrigan said. “The reason it’s becoming mainstream in England is because it competes better than other leagues and moves faster and affects more people, so it wins. the race. ”
Moncef Slaoui, the US government’s chief scientific adviser for the COVID-19 vaccine campaign, said scientists are still working to determine if the pressure in England is spreading more easily. He said it was also possible that a “spawning” of hidden issues had taken place “in the shadows” before scientists began looking for it.
The strain was first discovered in September, WHO officials said.
Q: WHAT IS THE WORLD ABOUT IT?
A: It has many mutations – nearly two dozen – and eight of them are on the spike protein that the virus uses to bind to and infect cells. Vaccines and antibody drugs are the target.
Dr Ravi Gupta, a virus specialist at the University of Cambridge in England, said modeling studies show it can be up to twice as infectious as the strain that has been so common in England to date. He and other researchers posted a report about it on a website that scientists use to quickly share developments but it has not been formally reviewed or published in a journal.
Q: DOES IT MAKE PEOPLE’S NATURE OR MORE TO DIE?
A: “There is no evidence that any of these are true, but clearly these are two issues that we need to look at,” said Landrigan. As more patients catch the new snoring, “they will know very quickly if the new weight makes people sicker. ”
WHO revolutionary expert Maria Van Kerkhove said Monday that “the information we have so far is that there is no change” in the type of illness or the severity of the new stress.
Q: WHAT ARE THE MUTATIONS FOR TREATMENTS?
A: One or two cases in England raise concerns that the mutations in some of the emerging new strains could damage the potency of drugs that provide antibodies to prevent the virus from infecting. introduction of cells.
“The antibody response studies are currently underway. We expect results in the coming days and weeks, ”said Van Kerkhove.
One drugmaker, Eli Lilly, said tests in her lab using beams in which the most worrying mutation shows that his drug is still fully active.
Q: WHAT ABOUT VACCINES?
A: Slaoui said that the premise is that conventional vaccines would still be effective against the variant, but that scientists are working to prove that.
“I hope this will not be a problem,” he said.
UK officials have said “they do not believe the vaccines are affected,” Van Kerkhove said.
Vaccines stimulate broad immune system responses as well as simply stimulate the immune system to make antibodies to the virus, so they are expected to continue to work, several scientists said.
Q: CAN ANY TEACHINGS BEGIN?
A: Landrigan thinks they can.
“If the new weight is actually more contagious than the original weight, it is very, very sensible to restrict travel,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. Whenever you can break the transmission chain you can slow down the virus. “
CNN reported that Fauci said he was not criticizing other countries for stopping travel to England but would not advise the United States to take such a step.
It is unknown at this time or the extent of the new strain in the United States.
Q: WHAT CAN I DO TO EXPLAIN?
A: Follow the advice to wear a mask, wash your hands often, keep social distance and avoid crowding, public health experts say.
“The bottom line is that we need to prevent the spread” of all virus strains that can cause COVID-19, said WHO chief executive Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“The more we let it spread, the more it will happen.”
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Associated journalists Christina Larson in Washington and Candice Choi in New York contributed to this report.
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