Is it easier to spread? Do you make people sick? Does this mean that treatments and vaccines will not work? The questions are multiplying as fast as the new strains of coronavirus, especially the one that is now moving through England. Scientists say there are concerns, but that the new strains should not cause alarm.
“There is no evidence that there is an increase in the severity,” COVID-19 of the latest strain said Monday, the head of the World Health Organization in an emergency, Dr. Michael Ryan.
“We don’t want to overreact,” U.S. government chief infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN.
Concern has been growing since Saturday, when the British prime minister said that a new strain or variant of coronavirus seems to be spreading more easily than the previous ones and is moving rapidly through England. Dozens of countries have banned flights from the United Kingdom, and the south of England has been placed under strict blocking measures.
Here are some questions and answers about what is known about the virus so far.
Q: Where did this new strain come from?
A: New variants have been observed almost since the virus was first detected in China almost a year ago. Viruses often move or develop small changes as they reproduce and move through a population – something “natural and expected,” the WHO said in a statement Monday.
“Most mutations are commonplace. Changing one or two letters of the genetic alphabet doesn’t make much of a difference in the ability to cause disease, “said Dr. Philip Landrigan, a former scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who runs a global health program in Boston. College.
A more worrying situation is when a virus moves by changing the proteins on its surface to help it get rid of drugs or the immune system or if it acquires a lot of changes that make it very different from previous versions.
Q: HOW DOES IT TAKE A DUR?
A: This can happen if a strain is a “founding” strain – the first to start and begin to spread in an area or because “super-spreading” events have helped it settle down.
It can also happen that a mutation offers a new variant an advantage, such as helping it to spread more easily than other strains circulating, as may be the case in the UK.
“It’s more contagious than the original strain,” Landrigan said. “The reason it becomes the dominant strain in England is that it outperforms the other strains and moves faster and infects more people, so it wins the race.”
Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser for the US government’s COVID-19 vaccine campaign, said scientists are still working to confirm whether the strain in England is spreading more easily. He said it was also possible that the “seeding” of the hidden cases “happened in the shadows” before scientists began to look for it.
The strain was first detected in September, WHO officials said.
Q: WHAT IS MEASURING ABOUT HIM?
A: It has many mutations – almost two dozen – and eight are on the spike protein that the virus uses to attach and infect cells. Spike is what vaccines and antibody drugs are all about.
Dr Ravi Gupta, a virus expert at Cambridge University in England, said modeling studies suggest it may be up to twice as infectious as the strain that has been most common in England so far. He and other researchers posted a report from it on a website that scientists use to quickly share developments, but have not been formally reviewed or published in a journal.
Q: DO YOU END PEOPLE OR MORE LIKELY TO DIE?
A: “There is no indication that any of these are true, but clearly these are two issues we need to pursue,” Landrigan said. As more patients become infected with the new strain, “they will soon know if the new strain makes people sick.”
A WHO outbreak expert, Maria Van Kerkhove, said on Monday that “the information we have so far is that there is no change” in the type of disease or its severity in the new strain.
Q: WHAT DO MUTATIONS FOR TREATMENTS MEAN?
A: Several cases in England express concern that mutations in new emerging strains could affect the potency of drugs that provide antibodies to block the virus from infecting cells.
“Studies on the antibody response are ongoing. We expect results in the coming days and weeks, “said Van Kerkhove.
A drug manufacturer, Eli Lilly, said tests performed in his lab using strains containing the most worrying mutations suggest his drug remains fully active.
Q: WHAT ABOUT VACCINES?
A: Slaoui said the presumption is that current vaccines would still be effective against the variant, but that scientists are working to confirm this.
“My expectation is that this will not be a problem,” he said.
UK officials said “I don’t think there is an impact on vaccines,” Van Kerkhove said.
Vaccines induce broad immune responses, in addition to causing the immune system to produce antibodies against the virus, so it is expected to continue to function, several scientists said.
Q: CAN TRAVEL RESTRICTIONS DO WELL?
A: Landrigan thinks I can.
“If the new strain is really more contagious than the original strain, then it is very, very sensitive to restrict movement,” he said. “It simply came to our notice then. Every time you can break the transmission chain, you can slow down the virus. “
CNN quoted Fauci as saying that it does not criticize other countries for suspending the trip to England, but that it will not advise the United States to take such a step.
The presence or extent of the new strain in the United States is unknown at this time.
Q: WHAT CAN I DO TO REDUCE MY RISK?
A: Follow the advice to wear a mask, wash your hands often, keep your social distance and avoid congestion, say public health experts.
“The bottom line is that we need to stop transmitting” all strains of the virus that can cause COVID-19, said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“The more we allow it to spread, the more mutations will occur.”
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Associated Press writers Christina Larson of Washington and Candice Choi of New York contributed to this report.
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