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Third corona mutation discovered: wave of infections among those who have already recovered - experts express concern

2021-01-18T03:52:56.417Z


Herd immunity was one of the magic words in the corona pandemic. But we may have to say goodbye to it. Researchers want to discover what role the mutation P.1 plays in this.


Herd immunity was one of the magic words in the corona pandemic.

But we may have to say goodbye to it.

Researchers want to discover what role the mutation P.1 plays in this.

Munich - First there was

Sars-CoV-2

.

The scientific name for the

novel coronavirus

that has kept the world in suspense for around a year.

And does what viruses do.

It continues to develop, mutates.

That is why new

nightmares kept appearing

in the past few days and weeks:

B.1.1.7 in Great Britain

or

501Y.V2 in South Africa

.

And now also

P.1 in Brazil

.

The latest Corona variant was discovered in one of the countries that have particularly

high victims of the pandemic

.

In the wake of a disturbing phenomenon.

Because in

Manaus

, the capital of the state of Amazonas,

three quarters of the population were infected with the corona virus

last year

.

The hope of

herd immunity

was then great.

Corona mutation in Brazil: Antibodies after infection do not offer sufficient protection

But then the

hospital beds

quickly

filled

with infected people again.

Which leads to the conclusion that the

antibodies

developed

do not offer any real protection either.

What could that be?

Nuno Faria, virologist at Imperial College London and professor at Oxford University, and his team discovered this mutation by examining

samples from infected people

.

In 13 of 31 cases the

new virus variant P.1.

can be proven, as

reported by the

science

magazine

Science

.

Video: Clinics in Brazil run out of oxygen for corona patients

Corona mutation in Brazil: will vaccines have to be modified soon?

Now there is great fear that people who have already recovered could become

infected again

.

Ultimately, the

vaccines that

have only just come onto the market may have to be

modified

.

But before the whole world can switch to panic mode, the experts refer to the current

state of science

.

So it is by no means certain that P.1 must be the

trigger for the new wave of infections in Manaus

.

The epidemiologist Oliver Prybus, for example, speculates, according to

Science

, that the

population's immunity

may have

decreased

, which is why the virus had an easy time again in the city of two million people.

Corona mutation in Brazil: higher degree of infection or immunity to antibodies?

It is also questionable whether the new virus variant is spreading because it is more

contagious

or because its

antibodies cannot affect

it.

“Of course it can also be a

combination of these two factors

,” emphasizes Prybus.

In the regions affected by mutations, research is being promoted accordingly.

The

WHO

recently asked for

corona genomes to be sequenced

and divided, so that the

mutations could

be traced more precisely

.

The member states were called upon to “support

global research

efforts to

better understand

important

properties of the mutations and variants

”.

Corona mutation in Brazil: Most variants are far less dangerous than B.1.1.7 or P.1

In the future, however, the difficulty could arise that the various

mutations interact

.

And nobody really knows how many there are now.

Probably countless.

Most of them

are likely to be

far less worrying

than B.1.1.7 or - presumably - P.1.

The variants from Great Britain, South Africa and Manaus, for example, are linked by the

mutation N501Y

, also called

Nelly

by researchers

.

However, previous findings suggest that

Nelly does not

operate

alone

, as she also occurs in variants that do not spread faster.

"Nelly may be harmless, unless she's hanging out with her

bad friends

," says Kristian Andersen from the Scripps Research Institute in the USA in a somewhat flippant way.

+

The corona virus is back - this time also as mutation P.1: In Manaus, the death toll is rising again.

© MICHAEL DANTAS / afp

Corona mutation in Brazil: "Virus is developing into a vaccine-resistant phenotype"

This clique of mutations doesn't seem to be able to resist the vaccines yet.

According to

Science

,

vaccination doctor Philip Krause got this impression

.

He heads a

WHO working group on corona vaccines

and raises a warning finger with a view to the near future: "The not-so-good news is that the

rapid training of these variants

indicates that the virus is

developing

into a

vaccine-resistant phenotype

sooner than hoped

can develop. "

If this happens,

updates for the vaccines will be

inevitable.

According to Krause, this can be implemented quickly, although

renewed checks with regard to safety and efficiency

would be necessary

before approval

.

The expert even suggests

multivalent vaccines

that help against several virus lineages.

Corona mutation in Brazil: Expert does not consider vaccine updates to be necessary yet

At the same time, Krause calmed down and said that it was a matter of “profound considerations.

The public shouldn't think that this is imminent and that

new vaccines are needed

. ”Other researchers see it differently.

Ravindra Gupta from the University of Cambridge suggests that vaccines should be produced now that will provide

immunity against the mutations

.

However, Mike Ryan believes that it is too easy to fully focus on researching the new virus variants and their weak points.

The

executive director of the WHO emergency program

suspects another main driver for virus resurgence: human behavior.

“It's too easy to

blame the mutations

and say the virus did all of that.

Unfortunately, it's also about what

we haven't done

, ”he calls for more personal responsibility in the crisis.

An appeal that we have heard many times.

But apparently not often enough.

(mg)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-01-18

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