Professor Zvika Granot from the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University said that the panic surrounding the mutations was excessive, and the closure of the sky was unnecessary • "They do the same thing - allow for wider infection" • "The body's immune system will cope with most changes" • And what about a mutation made in Israel ?
Corona Department at Shaare Zedek Medical Center
Photography:
Oren Ben Hakon
Since the companies Pfizer and Moderna announced the development of a vaccine against the corona virus, fears have begun to arise in the world of new mutations of the virus, against which the vaccine will be less suitable or effective.
So far these concerns have arisen around a number of mutations in which the British mutation, the South African mutation, the Brazilian mutation and the Japanese mutation have been published.
HMOs begin vaccinations against corona for pregnant women aged 35 and over // Photo: Shmuel Buharis, Moshe Ben Simhon
Recently, the IDF Intelligence Division also warned that during the company's immunization process in Israel, a new mutation of the virus that would be resistant to the vaccine could break out in Israel. In light of this, we decided to find out a bit about the different mutations, how dangerous they are. One in the country that will be resistant to the vaccine.
To this end, we spoke with Professor Zvika Granot from the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University, who deals with the body's immune system and its response to diseases.
What the mutations do and where they occur
At the beginning of the conversation, Prof. Granot said that "all the fear of the mutations is relatively excessive and the hysteria is just great."
Prof. Granot then explains the mechanism of the mutations and explains that "most of the mutations that interest us take place on the external protein that envelops the virus and causes it to enter cells. That allow the virus to infect more than the source. "
"For example, the British strain infects about 70-50 percent more than the original virus, which means that a person with the British strain that gets on the bus will infect more people than the original strain. But in other things, the virus is the same virus and the disease is the same disease."
That is, there is no more deadly mutation?
"In fact, all mutations do the same thing - they allow the virus to infect more, so there is no other disease or more deadly disease here, but a series of changes that all they do is allow better infection. So it's not that the British mutation infects more children, but "It has a stronger viral load and it is more contagious in all humans and in children as well. We see more patients and more seriously ill, but it is not a more serious disease but simply a larger amount of infections from which more patients end up."
"Needless to scare the public about a resistant mutation"
According to Professor Granot, the question of the resistance of the virus is also relatively excessive and the changes in proportion should be taken into account.
"First, if all the external protein of the virus changes, then it will not adapt to penetration into the cells of the body. That is, any change in the penetration protein of the virus must match the human body that is its host. There is a limit to how much the penetration protein of the virus can change: too much change "It simply does not have to be effective in relation to the body. This point means that after all the mutations, no new virus will be formed here, but only a slightly different penetration protein each time."
"In any case, the body's immune system will be able to cope with most changes. This is because the body produces a whole host of different antibodies in response to the corona and in response to the corona vaccine, some better and some less good, and when these antibodies are present the body recognizes most styles of the virus."
"While there may be a change that will slip out of the body, the chances of this change being both contagious and effective are very low. In general, the hysteria is unnecessary, in my opinion all possible mutations have been discovered, only we do not recognize them all because we do not sequence them all. Lethal or vaccine-resistant, it is unlikely to happen. "
So there will be an Israeli mutation?
"We probably already have and have not discovered it or it is ineffective. The changes happen all the time and we just do not recognize them. This is also the reason why there is no point in closing the sky, when a new mutation is discovered it has already escaped us and spread all over the world. In the face of an almost absolute majority of the mutations - the vaccine will be very good. "