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Reports from Great Britain and South Africa of a new tribe of the coronavirus that seem to spread more easily are of concern, but epidemiologists say it is not clear at this point whether it is really a new strain, whether it jeopardizes the effectiveness of vaccines, or whether it could make the disease more serious.
Viruses naturally evolve as they spread through the population, some more than others. That’s one reason why a new flu vaccine is needed every year.
New variants or strains of the coronavirus causing the disease COVID-19 they have been seen since it was first discovered in China almost a year ago.
On Saturday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new restrictions due to the new species, and several countries in the European Union they have suspended or restricted flights from Britain to try to limit any spread.
Here’s what is known about the situation:
What’s disturbing about the new species found in England?
Health experts in Britain and the United States said the species appears to spread more easily than the others, but there is no evidence yet that it is more deadly.
Patrick Vallance, the UK Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, noted that the species is “moving fast and becoming the dominant variety” causing more than 60% of London infections in December.
The strain is also concerning because it has many mutations – nearly two dozen – and some are in the spikey protein that the virus uses to attach itself to and infect cells. That protein is the target of current vaccines.
“Of course I am concerned about this,” but it is too early to know how important it will be in the long term, said Dr. Ravi Gupta, who studies viruses at the University of Cambridge in England. He and other researchers posted a report on the new species on a website that scientists use to quickly share any developments, but the paper has not been formally reviewed or published in any medical or scientific journal.
How are these new varieties produced?
Viruses often acquire small one or two letter changes in their genetic alphabet simply through normal evolution. A slightly modified species may become the most common in a country or region, just because it was the tribe that first took root there or because events of wide dispersion caused it to take hold.
Of greater concern is when a virus mutates by modifying the proteins on its surface to help it bypass drugs or the immune system.
“Emerging evidence” indicates this could be happening with the new coronavirus, tweeted Trevor Bedford, a biologist and geneticist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. “We have now seen the emergence and spread of several variants” indicating this, and some show resistance to antibody treatments, he noted.
What other species have emerged?
In April, researchers in Sweden found a virus with two genetic changes that made it nearly twice as contagious, Gupta said. About 6,000 cases of that strain of coronavirus have been reported worldwide, mainly in Denmark and England, he added.
Several varieties of that species have already emerged. Some of those cases involved people infected on mink farms in Denmark. A new species in South Africa has two modifications seen before, plus some new ones.
The one in Britain has changes as well as more, including eight in the spikey protein, Gupta said. It is called a ‘variant in research’ because it is not yet known how important it is.
The species was identified in southeast England in September and has been circulating in the area ever since, a World Health Organization official told the BBC on Sunday.
Can people who have had COVID-19 of an old kind get the new one? Will this undermine the effect of the vaccines?
Probably not, Scott Gottlieb, commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” Sunday.
“It’s unlikely,” agreed Gupta.
Vivek Murthy, the public health director nominee by president-elect Joe Biden, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday that he did not. “There is no reason to believe that the vaccines that have been developed will not be effective against this virus”.
Vaccines elicit a wide variety of immune system responses beyond what it has against the spiny protein, several medical experts noted.
The possibility that new strains will be resistant to existing vaccines is small, but not “non-existent,” said Dr. Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific advisor to the US government’s vaccination campaign, on the “State of the Union” program. from CNN.
“Until now I don’t think there was a single variety that was resistant.”, he pointed. “This particular variant in Britain, I think, is very likely not escaping the immunity that the vaccine provides.”.
Bedford agreed.
“I’m not concerned” because it likely takes many changes in the genetic code to undermine a vaccine, not just one or two mutations, Bedford tweeted. But vaccines may need to be updated over time as changes accumulate, and changes need to be monitored more closely, he wrote.
Murthy said the new strain does not imply altering health authorities’ recommendations about wearing masks, washing hands, and maintaining social distance.