"COVID-19 Virus"by Trinity Care Foundation is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
501.V2 – worrying, not terrifying.
The first case of COVID-19 was reported to the World Health Organisation in December 2019. Subsequently, SARS-CoV-s, the virus responsible, has been constantly mutating. This is due to the fact that when a virus enters its host, it rapidly reproduces, replicating in order to survive. Over time, genetic copying errors occur, changing it in ways that might help it escape some of the immune system defences. There are currently many thousand variants of the virus circulating.
As of December 2020, a new variant of COVID-19 has been detected in South Africa’s Eastern and Western Cape. It is believed, however, to have been the most dominant strain in this region as of November. This mutation has come to be known as 501.V2 and has sparked concern amongst experts regarding its potential dangers.
By December 18th, the South African authorities announced that the detected mutation was rapidly spreading. Currently, it is the most dominant strain in the Eastern and Western Cape of South Africa and has been found in at least 20 other countries including Austria, Norway, Japan and the UK.
South Africa is currently experiencing a drastic resurge in the number of detected cases, resulting in a death toll considerably surpassing the estimated projections during this period. As a result, the UK has decided to shut off its travel corridors with not only the nation itself but other African countries such as Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which they deem as potential threats in aiding the spread of the strain.
The UK’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock describe this new variant as especially concerning. “I am incredibly worried about the South African variant, and that’s why we took the action that we did to restrict all flights from South Africa”, he told the BBC.
Currently, scientists have no evidence to suggest that the illness caused by 501.V2 is more serious than other strains however it is said to be significantly more contagious than previous strains. The South African variant carries the mutation N501Y, making it more easily transmitted. As a result, it has the capacity to affect more people, accentuating the strain on the health care systems and ultimately leading to more deaths across the global community.
According to current research, the evidence suggests that this mutation is unlikely to render the vaccinations redundant. However, results from the Moderna trial, suggest that though still effective, the immune response may not be as strong or long-lasting.
Many further strains are expected to emerge in the future and there is currently no way to stop this, however, it is believed that the vaccination can be altered and tweaked if necessary, in order to accommodate this change in the coming months, or years to come.
As of now, however, scientists continue to study the variant in depth and targeted testing is taking place in some parts of England with the aim of controlling the situation.
We have the people, the vaccine and the resources to tackle this variant – while we should be worried we should not terrified.
Written by Hannah Naftalin, 11MG
Comentarios