It had not been too long since the good news of the COVID19 vaccine broke out. But now, a shocking news has surfaced that has again rankled the governments around the world A new strain of this corona virus has been found in the UK .
There has been a mutation in the virus and it is being said that this new strain is 70% more infectious .This is why many countries across the world have imposed flight bans . France, Belgium, Austria and even India has imposed flight bans on the flights coming form the UK . But the question is how much more dangerous is this new strain than the original Covid19 virus? Will vaccines be effective on the new mutation or not? Let us find out about all of that in this article today .
Last week, UK announced that a new strain of Sars-CoV-2 virus had been identified . The virus is called Sars-CoV-2 and the disease that it causes is called Covid19. The daily number of covid19 cases in London have doubled in the past week and it has been found out that almost 60% of the increased number of cases have been caused by the new virus strain The new variant, has been termed as VUI202012/01 (named after the date) .
Where did this new strain come from?
Simply through mutation So, once you understand what mutation is, then you will be able to understand what this entire matter is all about . The word mutation might make you think about the films of Xmen because they talk about mutants The films always exaggerate everything .
But in reality, organisms on earth In humans, in plants, in animals as well as in viruses Infact, mutation is so essential that evolution cannot take place without it . We would not have existed on earth without it So what is it? Simply speaking, mutation is a mistake that occurs while copying a gene Basically, when there is a change in the sequence of DNA, it is called mutation Mutation can occur because of many reasons but there are mainly two reasons:
The first is environmental reasons. When there is a change in the environment For example, nuclear radiation can cause mutation or then The ultraviolet rays from the sun can cause mutation in your cells and that is not a good thing .This mutation can cause cancer This is why it is said that one should not step out without sunscreen whenever the ultraviolet index of the sun is high .
But the second reason behind mutation is reproduction Whenever a living organism reproduces, there is mutation. There are some mistakes that occur while copying of DNA and sometimes these mistakes are beneficial Let us take the example of a bird. Assume that there is a group of a specific species of birds All these birds have a small beak But suddenly, there is a mutation in them and then a bird is born that has a longer beak amongst them A longer beak gives the bird the advantage of digging deeper into the dirt and catching worms for food And due to this advantage, when the bird bears more off springs with the same muation of longer beaks, then overall, they have an advantage in comparison with the rest of the group with smaller beaks Over generations, due to natural selection, the coming generations of this bird will always have longer beaks because the longer beaks gave them an advantage So, this is a great example of how mutation works during evolution and natural section Mutation is responsible for the evolution of all the living organisms in the world .
Disadvantages of Mutation
In majority of the cases, mutation is not beneficial , Most of the time mutations are either useless or are a disadvantage For example, a lot of kids are born with three hands or six fingers on their hand Now, this is is not really beneficial, but it is mutation nevertheless .
Mutation in Covid 19
Coming back to COVID19, the viruses have the same story Some viruses have RNA instead of DNA Sars CoV 2 also has RNA. RNA is single stranded while DNA is double stranded While reproduction, there are more chances of an error in copying of an RNA and this is why the viruses that have RNA see far more mutations .But mutations are a very common thing In the case of SARS-CoV-2, there are around one to two mutations per month globally, according to UK genetics specialists.
So, now you can imagine- this is the rate at which there are mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus . Like I said, most of these mutations are useless and make no major difference . The mutated UK virus has an unusually large number of genetic changes. One of these changes concerns the spikes on the virus- that you can see in the picture below . These changes include the spike protein which is often responsible for how the virus infects a human cell It is said that these spikes have undergone changes in a way that has increased the binding of the virus in our cells. which in turn makes it more infectious According to a BBC report, some scientists are of the opinion that this strain is 70% more infectious as compared to the old virus strain and most of the cases seen in UK today are because of this new strain .
As of 30 December , India has become the latest country to report cases of a new type of COVID-19 of the one reported for the first time in the UK. The strain has reduced the prospect of a coronavirus vaccine as experts believe the mutant virus may be easily transmitted.
The problem has already spread to many countries, including Italy, Sweden, France, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Canada, Japan, causing more than 50 countries, including India, to set travel restrictions in the UK.
The Department of Health on December 29 said six UK returnees were found to have a different new UK genome. Three samples of NIMHANS of Bengaluru, 2 of CCMB, Hyderabad and 1 of NIV, Pune tested and found new variants.
Is it easily spread? Make people sick? Will treatment and vaccines not work? Questions are growing rapidly as a new type of coronavirus.
Is whether this new strain is more fatal/deadly?
According to England's chief medical officer there's no evidence so far to suggest that the new strain causes a higher death rate , He also says that more research needs to be done in order to fully prove it . But history has good news regarding this In the past, whenever viruses have mutated, they became more infectious, but less deadly you may see it , I had showed you a graph between infectious and deadly below . Mostly, it so happens that the viruses that are more infectious are less deadly and the ones that are less infectious are more deadly .
There is good news in this regard as well UK PM Boris Johnson has said- There is no evidence suggesting vaccines will be any less effective against the new variant The health ministers of France and Germany also maintain that according to all that we know about the new strain till now, all the vaccines that are being manufactured will be as effective against the new strain as they were against the old one But some scientists are concerned as well. For example, Prof Ravi Gupta at the University of Cambridge maintains that until now, there are no problems that have been created due to mutation, but with the passage of time, a mutation might arise that the vaccines are ineffective against There is a term for this scenario- vaccine escape Vaccine escape happens when the virus mutates so much that it renders the vaccine ineffective This is called vaccine escape It is due to these reasons and the fact that not much is known about the virus .
What additional precautions to take?
“The best way to stop the disease is to stick to the rules - wash our hands, wear a mask and keep away from society. Recommended recommendations for reducing the spread of the new type continue to be evaluated, following the guidelines for isolation, and compliance, ”concludes the doctor.
Lockdown and flight ban around the world
The governments around the world have taken some surprisingly tough decisions For example, an emergency lockdown has been declared in UK Countries like France, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Canada, Netherlands, Germany and India among others, have temporarily banned flights from the UK Germany may consider the same for flights coming from South Africa because another mutation has been found in South Africa World Health Organization has said that it will continue to analyze data on the new strain and provide us with the latest updates telling us what we should do in this regard But there are some questions that are raised on the governments around the world For how long would drastic measures like emergency lockdown and flight bans be taken? Mutations is common and history has been replete with viruses This does not mean that flight bans and lockdowns should be imposed frequently which impair the functioning and the economy of the country .
Conclusion
New Covid 19 Strain Came From Mutation of the old virus . It is not yet confirmed that how much deadly it is but history tells it should not be that deadly but the final answer is yet to come . Tell us your opinion in the comments below and Please Share this article with your friends and family .
0 Comments
We welcome relevant and respectful comments. Off-topic or spam comments may be removed.