What should we do about the SARS-CoV-2 virus mutants that have emerged in the UK?

January 13, 2021 // -- Will the recent mutation SARS-CoV-2 in the UK spread more easily? Will it make people more susceptible to infection? Are vaccines and therapies no longer working? What does it mean for the virus to appear in the United States and other countries? Scientists say we have reason to worry and do more research, but this new mutant virus shouldn't worry us too much.
this new variant come from? Since SARS-CoV-2 was discovered nearly a year ago, new variants of the virus have emerged, often mutating or slightly changing as it spreads and spreads through the population.
, however, most of the changes are trivial, and the researchers say it is a change in one or two letters in the genetic component that has little effect on the virus's ability to cause disease.
more worrying is that a virus mutates when it helps it escape an attack by changing the protein on its surface, or when it gets a lot of changes that make it very different from previous versions of the virus.
does a virus variant dominate? If a mutant has a foothold in a region and starts spreading, or if it helps it gain a foothold because of a super-transmitter event, it may give the virus a dominant position, and if a mutation gives the mutant virus a new advantage to help it spread more easily, it may also dominate.
Is scientists are still trying to determine whether the virus mutants found in the UK are more easily transmitted, and there is evidence that they do;
the UK's mutant virus was detected as early as September, and a new South African mutant virus has emerged, according to WHO officials.
photo Source: Jeff Robertson, File What's wrong with the UK's mutant virus? There are many mutations (nearly 20) from the UK, eight of which occur on the prick proteins used by the virus to adsorb and infect host cells, which are the targets of new vaccines and antibody development.
, a researcher at the University of Oxford in the UK, said the modelling results suggested the mutant could be twice as contagious as the most common virus in the UK to date.
this virus mutant make people more susceptible to infection or death? There is no indication that neither is true; but it is clear that these are two issues that scientists must be concerned about, and as more and more patients become infected with the virus mutant, scientists will be able to determine more quickly whether the mutation is more likely to cause disease.
van Kerkhove, an outbreak prevention and control expert at the WHO, says the information we have so far is that the type of disease or its severity has not changed.
the mutation mean for treatment? Several cases in the UK have raised concerns among scientists that some emerging mutants could undermine the potential of the drug, which supports antibodies to block infected cells.
is currently conducting research on antibodies, and Lilly says its laboratory results show that the drugs they develop are still fully active.
that vaccine? Scientists now believe the vaccine is still effective against viral mutants, but they are working on research to confirm this; British officials recently said there was no data to suggest that the new mutation impaired the effectiveness of existing vaccines; and that the vaccine could induce a broad immune response in addition to boosting the immune system of host bodies to produce antibodies against the virus.
can I do to reduce the risk of infection with virus mutants? Public health experts say people should wear masks, wash their hands frequently, keep their society at a distance and avoid gathering;
() Reference: Scientists trying to understand new virusby The Associated Press Does it spread more easy? Make people sicker? Mean that treatments and vaccines won't work? Questions are multiplying as fast as new variants of the coronavirus, especially the one moving through England and now popping up in the U.S. and other countries. Scientists say there is reason for concern and more to learn but that the new variants should not cause alarm. Worry has been growing since before Christmas, when Britain's prime minister said the coronavirus variant seemed to spread more easily than earlier ones and was moving rapidly through England. On Tuesday, Colorado health officials said they had found it there......