LONDON – The UK’s strongest coronavirus variant is becoming more resistant to vaccines, scientists have warned.
Two leading UK scientists on Wednesday warned that the variant of the virus first identified in Kent has found the same E484K mutation on its spike protein that makes the variant in South Africa so worrying to experts.
Two versions appearing in the UK are being closely monitored by public health authorities. The first of these two home types has been found mainly in Bristol and the South West, where experts have confirmed 15 cases, with another six in other parts of England. The second local variant is in Liverpool and the North West, with a collection of 42 confirmed cases to date.
Sharon Peacock, executive director and chair of the COVID-19 Genomics Consortium UK (COG-UK), told POLITICO in an interview that this is a “major concern”. mutation has been linked to immunity to vaccines and re-infection in South Africa.
“Our home variety is developing that shop several times perhaps through a process of natural selection,” she said. “If the virus benefits from a particular mutation, it is likely that the population will continue to expand. That’s becoming a huge concern in the country. ”
Speaking at a press conference on Downing Street on Wednesday, the UK government’s Chief Scientific Adviser Patrick Vallance said it was “not surprising” that the Kent variant has evolved in this way and will occur in some places. others as well.
“Having that variable makes it a little more likely to look different to the immune system so we need to keep an eye out for it,” Vallance said. “We need to stick to the top and we need to continue to test the effects of vaccines in that situation.”
Peacock said the UK government’s approach to border controls, which will be stricter from Monday, is “absolutely good” because of testing people on arrival, as well as the genome order of cases positive, the UK will allow an understanding of how the virus can spread around other parts of the world.
But she warned that tight border controls will not give the British people full protection because “changes in non-border control in the UK are likely to occur,” as is happening in Bristol.
Helping others
The Peacock-led consortium will offer full-genome sequences of coronavirus samples to the National Health Service and the British government. British experts currently donate 27,000 genomes each week but this figure will continue to rise, she said, while UK experts are also sharing their tools and data in an effort to improve their potential. enlarge other countries.
Peacock said a total of 26 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa had so far engaged in UK work, although she declined to name any. “The building blocks for sequencing are largely there in many places with good facilities,” she said.
The chair of the consortium said: “How you create a network is a question of collaboration and co-operation, and sewing the whole system from patients to test through to order generation and then back to public health. That is a very complex business to put together. ”
The entire sedation process, from the moment a COVID-19 patient is tested, to the sequenced sequencing data, currently takes about five days at the SANGER Institute in Cambridge and a little longer. at a departmental laboratory. “We’re always working on our turnaround time right now,” Peacock said. “For the effective investigation of a revolution you must answer the test within 36 hours,” she said.
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