The coronavirus variant in Great Britain “is about to sweep the world”, says the geneticist

LONDON – A variant of the coronavirus that first appeared in the UK and has since been identified in more than 50 countries, could become the dominant form of the virus worldwide, according to the head of the UK’s genetic surveillance program.

“The new variant has swept the country and will sweep the world, in all likelihood,” said Professor Sharon Peacock, director of the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium.

“In the future, I think the key will be if something (a variant) is particularly problematic with vaccines,” she told the broadcaster’s Newcast podcast.

The Peacock-led group was created in April 2020 and brings together highly respected experts and institutes to collect, sequence and analyze the genome of the virus as part of the response to the UK pandemic. To date, it has tracked the genetic history of more than 250,000 virus samples.

The consortium first detected the more infectious variant of the virus, called the “British variant” and formally known as “B1.1.7”, in Kent, south-east England, in September 2020, by retrospective analysis of virus samples.

Viruses move all the time, but experts become worried when a virus moves to become more transmissible, as in this case, or more deadly. The higher infection rates associated with the variant identified in the UK are likely to lead to more hospitalizations and, unfortunately, more deaths; as a result, its content has become a priority.

The variant spread rapidly in the south-east of England and London and has now become the dominant strain in the United Kingdom. It has also been detected in more than 50 countries, with health authorities struggling to isolate cases, although it is believed that this more virulent strain is already widely circulating.

It is difficult to know the exact origin of the mutation and, given the activity of the consortium, it was likely to find new variants in the UK (other countries that have advanced virus genome sequencing, such as Denmark and South Africa, have also discovered variants). Peacock, who is also a professor of public health and microbiology at Cambridge University, said he believes sequencing coronavirus variants will be necessary for at least 10 years.

To date, there have been more than 107 million cases of coronavirus and more than 2.3 million deaths worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.

In addition to the virus variant first encountered in the south-east of England, two new variants have appeared in a group of cases in Liverpool and Bristol, which scientists are now monitoring.

The Bristol variant has been identified as a “variant of concern” by the Advisory Group on the threat of new and emerging respiratory viruses in the UK.

Peacock said that although the mutant variants were a concern, the variant observed in and around the city of Bristol was in “contained areas and in very small numbers”, with only 21 cases detected so far.

“It is inevitable that the virus will continue to move, but what is worrying is that version B1.1.7 that we have been circulating for a few weeks and months is starting to move again and get new mutations, which could affect the way we deal. of the virus in terms of immunity and the effectiveness of vaccines, “she added.