Ten days ago, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson stirred up panic around the world by declaring that the new English variant of the coronavirus "may be linked to a higher degree of mortality".
A new study carried out by several teams of prestigious researchers from King's College London associated with scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School (Boston), in an article published Friday on the specialized site MedRxiv, is intended to be, rather reassuring.
She indicates that although this new variant is more contagious, for the rest, the symptoms or the rate of hospitalization would not be different from those observed with the initial virus.
READ ALSO>
Delayed confinement: these indicators that weighed in the government's decision
The first cases of the new variant would have appeared in September in the south-east of England and then spread rapidly.
Its contagiousness quickly proved to be more important.
But, are the symptoms, the course of the disease, the risk of reinfection in people who have already been infected, similar with this strain of virus than with the initial virus?
Some data have suggested that this mutated virus increases mortality.
But many uncertainties remained.
To compensate for the lack of data, the team of international researchers crossed several databases.
By analyzing the symptoms of 36,920 users of the Covid Symptom Study application who tested positive between September 28 and December 27, by crossing these symptoms with the regional proportion of patients affected by the mutated viruses, the investigators came to rather conclusions. reassuring.
The percentage of asymptomatic patients would not have changed either
“We found no evidence of any change, in the symptoms reported and in the severity and duration of the disease with this new variant,” they write.
Are people who have already been infected with the classic virus more likely to be infected a second time with this variant?
“We found a probable reinfection rate of around 0.7%, they add, but no evidence that this rate is higher compared to older strains.
"
Likewise, with the mutated virus, there is not a different number of symptoms or a higher proportion of patients with "long-term Covid".
The percentage of asymptomatic patients would not have changed either.
However, this work confirms the greatest contagiousness.
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
“This investigation is interesting and serious, assures an expert in epidemiology and public health.
It must be confirmed by cohort studies "For Anne-Claude Crémieux, professor of infectious diseases at Saint-Louis hospital, in Paris:" We need other studies to confirm these data which remain preliminary.
Previous work does not point in the same direction.
"