A British scientist advising the government has warned of a ‘worrying’ and ‘spontaneous’ mutation of the British Covid-19 variant that could affect the effectiveness of the vaccines currently in use.
“The mutation with the greatest concern, which we call E484K, also occurred spontaneously in the new Kent tribe in parts of the country,” Calum Semple, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergency, told BBC radio on Tuesday morning.
The new and disturbing E484K mutation has already been reported in a technical briefing published by Public Health England, but outside scientific circles it has not been widely noticed.
“A limited number of B.1.1.7 VOC (variant of concern) … taken with E484K mutation have been detected,” says the summary of the briefing.
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Dr. Julian Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester, said the mutation was worrying, but not unexpected.
‘The acquisition [of the E484K mutation] may be due to recombination with one of the South African / Brazilian varietal viruses that may have infected the same cell – as we see with different flu viruses – but it is rarer in coronaviruses, ” he explains.
The Kent strain, also commonly referred to as the British variant, has been shown to be more contagious, while this new mutation may reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines currently being administered in the UK.
“If this E484K mutation is obtained by most B.1.1.7 variants in the UK, recent assurances from recent studies showing that the mRNA vaccines still provide optimal protection against the original UK variant are not possible. no longer applicable, “ Tang said.
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The E484K mutation has already been seen in the South African and Brazilian variants, but although the mutation is likely to affect the efficacy of the vaccine, the current jab is unlikely to become redundant.
Studies done on the South African variant show that the mutation can evade parts of the immune response caused by natural infection or vaccination.
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