New strain of covid-19 might not be more contagious, says this US scientist

As a new strain of covid-19 runs amok in the UK, concerns about the contagion it can cause are on a rise. Except, according to this vaccine scientist, we have nothing to worry about YET.
new strain of covid-19
Here’s what you need to know about the new strain of covid-19. Image courtesy: Shutterstock
Team Health Shots Published: 22 Dec 2020, 16:59 pm IST
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Just as we had started getting into festive mode, looking forward to Christmas and the New Year—2020 hit us with a fresh surprise. A new variant of covid-19, which is running amok in the UK, slowly and steadily spreading across Europe.

As the United Kingdom gears up to go into lockdown and the whole world braces for this new strain to take over, American researchers are conducting studies to learn about it.

Moncef Slaoui, chief advisor to the Operation Warp Speed vaccine program in the US, expects lab experiments to show the new strain would respond to existing vaccines and treatments.

While several countries have shut their borders to Britain, Slaoui says it was possible the variant has long been prevalent in the United Kingdom—but that scientists had not begun looking for it until now, creating the impression of a surge when they did.

The new strain of covid-19 might not be more dangerous

“There is no hard evidence that this virus is actually more transmissible, (but) there is clear evidence that there is more of it in the population,” the vaccine scientist and former pharmaceutical executive said.

“It may be just seeding happened in the shadows and we’re seeing now a surge, or maybe it has higher transmissibility.”

“What’s clear is it’s not more pathogenic,” he continued, meaning it hasn’t been shown to cause more severe disease.

Also, read: Finding it difficult to adjust to the new normal? Fret not because here’s help!

On the question of contagiousness, in order to determine cause and effect, experiments would need to be carried out on animals in which they are co-housed and deliberately infected, he said.

new strain of covid-19
Coronavirus is not going anywhere, anytime soon. Image courtesy: Shutterstock

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This would show the level of viral load required to infect another animal.

The National Institutes for Health (NIH) had begun lab studies on the variant to determine whether antibodies against the more dominant strain of Covid-19 will be effective against it, said Slaoui. “Which is very likely the expected outcome,” he said.

The tests will use antibodies taken from recovered patients, antibodies raised by vaccines, and synthetic lab-made antibodies, and would take a few weeks to carry out.

Slaoui added he was optimistic that antibodies produced in response to Covid-19 vaccines would continue to be effective, because they bind to several “epitopes” or regions of the spike protein.

The spike protein is the three-dimensional surface molecule the virus uses to invade human cells, and is what gives the microbe its crown or “corona” like appearance.

The chances that a single mutation would alter all these regions at once are “extremely low,” he said.

“Whether someday, somewhere, a virus may turn out to escape the protective response produced by the vaccine is impossible to exclude, so we have to remain absolutely vigilant,” he cautioned.

(With inputs from AFP)

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