The coronavirus variant, first identified in the UK, is now spreading widely in the US and experts believe it could be the dominant form of the virus by March. There is evidence that it leads to more virus in the nose, and therefore it is more transmissible.
Although there are now millions of people vaccinated, we still do not know how much the virus repeats in them, or whether it is low enough to prevent it from spreading to other people.
Experts also express concern about vaccine resistance or vaccine escape. This is a very rare case when a variant of the pathogen is not affected by the vaccine and can then infect the person and cause diseases.
Most evidence suggests that this may not be the case yet, although some data from South Africa suggest that the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine is less effective against the variant there. “At the moment, it is very difficult to examine laboratory data and predict what will happen to humans,” writes viral immunologist Sarah L. Caddy. The conversation. “Firstly, we do not know the minimum number or ‘titer’ of effective antibodies needed to protect someone from the virus.”
The story of one patient can help scientists better understand what the virus does in our bodies and how it mutates. A 45-year-old man had an infection that lasted five months in 2020. Unlike others who can pass the virus and have persistent symptoms, this patient had an active virus in his body throughout the period. NPR.
Scientists can look at samples taken regularly from the patient and compare them. If the virus has mutated in the patient’s body, they should be able to see it.
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And in this case, they did. “I was shocked,” Jonathan Li told Harvard Medical School, according to NPR. “When I saw the virus series, I knew we were dealing with something completely different and possibly very important.”
The patient had an affected immune system, which according to experts is the reason why the virus continued. A paper in the New England Journal of Medicine chronicles of their disease and the analyzes resulting from the study of their samples. The length of time the virus was able to survive in the patient’s body was perhaps a factor that made it possible to mutate as much as possible.
However, mutations do not always lead anywhere. This is a normal process that all viruses go through unintentionally. More mutations therefore do not necessarily mean that a more lethal, more transmissible or significantly different virus will be on the surface. And it can be good for vaccines. “In a more reassuring way, scientists agree that it is very unlikely that some virus mutations will render current COVID vaccines useless,” Caddy writes. “Mutations, however, can generally make these vaccines less effective.”
Experts are hopeful that vaccines can be adapted to handle the variants, especially with messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines that can be easily adapted and updated. Research groups and vaccine developers is already working on this issue, but it may take some time to get the new versions out.
For updated information on COVID-19, go to the websites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization. For updated global case counts, visit this page provided by Johns Hopkins University or the COVID tracking project.
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