Scientists have warned that the dominant coronavirus variant in the UK is increasingly resistant to vaccines.
Two leading scientists in the United Kingdom warned on Wednesday that the variant of the virus first identified in Kent received the same E484K mutation on its ear protein that makes up the South African variant. so worried for experts.
Public health authorities are closely monitoring two emerging UK variants. The first of these two homemade variants was mostly found in Bristol and South West, where experts have confirmed 15 cases, with six more in other parts of England. The second variant was located in Liverpool and North West, with a group of 42 cases confirmed so far.
Sharon Peacock, executive director and chairman of the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK), said in an interview with POLITICO that this is a major concern because such mutation is associated with immunity to vaccines and reinfection in South Africa.
“Our homemade variant develops the mutation on several occasions probably through a process of natural selection,” she said. ‘If the virus benefits from a particular mutation, it is likely to persist and spread in the population. It is becoming very worrying in the country. ”
Patrick Vallance, chief scientific adviser to the British government, said at a press conference in Downing Street on Wednesday: “It is not surprising” that the Kent variant has evolved in this way and that it will happen elsewhere.
“By getting the variant, it makes the chances likely that it looks different from the immune system, so we need to pay attention to that,” Vallance said. “We need to continue testing and continue to test the vaccine effects in that situation.”
Peacock said the UK Government’s approach to border controls, which will be tightened from Monday, is ‘generally’ good because people have to test people on arrival, as well as genome sequences of positive cases, to make the UK understand How the virus mutates. other parts of the world.
But she warned that strict border control would not provide the British people with full protection, because ‘there is a likelihood that variants will arise in the UK that are not related to border control’, as is happening in Bristol.
Help others
The Peacock-led consortium provides comprehensive sequencing of coronavirus samples to the National Health Service and the UK Government. British experts currently follow 27,000 genomes per week, but this figure will continue to increase, she said, while British experts also share their instruments and data in an effort to increase the capacity of other countries.
Peacock said a total of 26 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa have been working on the UK so far, although she declined to name. “The building blocks for sequencing are practically many in many places with good resources,” she said.
The chairman of the consortium added: ‘It’s a question of how you form a network, and it’s about collaboration and collaboration, and about adapting the whole system, from patient to test generation and then again to public health. It’s quite a complicated undertaking to put together. ”
The entire sequencing process, from the moment a COVID-19 patient is tested, to the sequencing of the sequencing data, takes about five days at the SANGER Institute in Cambridge and a little longer at local laboratories. “We are currently constantly working on our lead time,” Peacock said. “For an effective outbreak investigation, you need to have the test-to-answer response within 36 hours,” she said.
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