Even when the world saw hope with the approval of several covid-19 vaccines and the launch of immunization plans, the British authorities announced in mid-December that they had detected a new strain of the virus.
The news alarmed the whole world, with many doubts due to the appearance of the mutation: Was it more lethal? Are the symptoms more severe? Is it spreading faster? Will the vaccine work?
The main fear was whether this variant of SARS-CoV-2 was more lethal than its predecessor in a context where many countries experience a saturation of hospitals by patients and others go as far as definition.
Due to the recent situation, there is not much scientific information to address the subject, but the health authorities in England have already provided their first assessment and excludes, for the moment, that the variant is more lethal.
See also: Honduran in London before a new strain: “Everything is not right here …”
A new strain was detected
The Secretary of Health of England, Matt Hancock, informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about a new strain of coronavirus (covid-19) on December 14, 2020.
The British authorities associate this new variant with the increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations in the south-west of England, with approximately 1,108 infections attributed to the mutation.
In his statements, Hancock detailed that the initial analysis showed that the new strain could be linked to the increase in the number of cases, but that it did not exactly cause the increase, as they occurred in areas with flexible measures.
In addition, the Secretary noted that, although more than 10,000 cases have been identified, they are not yet fully sure to what extent the variant could intensify infections.
The British Medical Journal details this VUI-202 012/01 (the first “Variant under investigation” in December 2020) is defined by a set of approximately 17 changes or mutations.
This mutation is an alteration in protein S or Pico, with which the virus tends to bind to receptors and the angiotensin converting enzyme; this is why it enters the lung cell and causes lung damage.
Interesting: How should Honduras prepare for a new strain of coronavirus?
Does the vaccine work?
This strain was detected in an investigation conducted in early December by Consornio Covid-19 Genomics UK (COG UK), an association created in April 2020 in the UK to capture SARS-CoV-2 samples.
The episode was characterized by an increase in the case notification rate to more than three times in the 14 days from epidemiological week 41 to 50 (from October 5 to December 13, 2020), according to the CARE report. Although there was already a registration of this new strain in September.
As expected, viruses change their genetic structure and therefore strains or variants appear. Therefore, one of the main unknowns that appears is the effectiveness of the vaccine against this new variant.
First, the main function of a vaccine is to generate immunity for the body against a disease, producing antibodies that will then act to protect it against future infections, because the immune system will be able to recognize the infectious agent and destroy it.
In the case of the Pfizer vaccine against SARS-CoV-2, experts say that it is able to attack different parts of the virus despite the mutation, but remain vigilant if the virus continues to show several variants. This would lead to a rescheduling of the vaccine.
The new strain has already spread to several European countries and is associated with an increase in cases in the south-west of England. Similarly, Chile has detected its first case, and the United States is keeping a suspect under control.
In the case of Honduras, the main problem is that one would not really know which variant it is because more specific tests are needed to detect it and therefore they tend to be more expensive.
Read also: The Ministry of Health ensures that four million vaccines will come to Honduras
What is lethality?
Although it has been speculated that the new strain could be the cause of a larger transmission, so far there is not enough information to verify this hypothesis, as it has been detailed that the places with the highest indications of infection did not have the appropriate restrictions.
In addition, official data show higher signs of infection, rising from around 32,500 between 27 December to more than 53,000 new cases registered on 29 December in England.
On the other hand, deaths show a result of 347 deaths, up from an increase of 414 deaths caused by this disease, which concludes that the new strain may be more contagious, but not more lethal.
After that, the UK Department of Health presented a report (you can see it here) with the first findings of an investigation of people infected with this mutation, which ruled out any indication of higher lethality.
“Preliminary results of the cohort study did not find statistically significant differences in hospitalization and fatality at 28 days between the cases with the variant (i.e. the new strain) and the cases of wild-type comparison “, the analysis concludes.
The researchers further stated that “there were no significant differences in the likelihood of reinfection between the variant cases and the comparison group”.
On the other hand, it is very hasty to draw conclusions about this new variant, as it is still under constant observation by the World Health Organization and the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG UK).
To date, the main WHO recommendations for reducing the risk of infection with this new mutation are constant hand washing and keeping your distance.
Conclusion:
The claim that the new coronavirus strain is more lethal than the original Fake.
The only study conducted so far, published by the British Department of Health (where the variant was detected), excludes an increase in the number of deaths or an increase in hospitalizations due to this mutation in a study group.
“Preliminary results of the cohort study did not find statistically significant differences in hospitalization and fatality at 28 days between the cases with the variant (i.e. the new strain) and the cases of wild-type comparison “, the analysis concludes.
However, experts called for the maintenance of biosecurity measures, as this variant is very likely to be more contagious, which would lead to an increase in cases and the saturation of hospitals.