Corona mutations from California and New York are spreading rapidly in the USA.
The new variants have already reached Europe - how dangerous are they?
New York - Almost half of all corona cases in Germany are now due to virus mutations.
According to the Robert Koch Institute on Wednesday (March 3), the figure is currently 46 percent.
A good month ago, the RKI put their share at just six percent, two weeks ago it was 22 percent.
Corona mutations: Further variants "inevitable" with high global distribution
The virus mutations are therefore undoubtedly on the rise.
Above all, the British mutant B.1.1.7 is spreading rapidly in Europe.
On top of that, variants from South Africa and Brazil have already been detected in Germany, all of which contribute to the fact that the infection situation in this country is still tense.
If the new variants did not exist, Germany would have reached its incidence target of 35 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants.
FDP politician and doctor Andrew Ullmann warned in an interview with
Merkur.de
of a mutation
event
that could possibly be uncontrollable in the medium term.
Because further mutations are "inevitable" with high global distribution.
Corona mutations from the USA: Variants from New York and California are spreading
Will the next mutations soon reach the Federal Republic of Germany?
Two variants are currently rampant in the USA, which, according to initial scientific findings, were not introduced into the country, but developed on site.
Mutation hotspots are California and New York.
The corresponding variants were first discovered at the end of 2020 and have been detected more and more often since then.
The New York variant B.1.526 already accounted for 12 percent of the positive corona tests in the metropolis in February, the Californian mutant with the two similar types B.1.427 and B.1.429 can be found in around a quarter of the samples on site, Ascending trend.
Cases of the mutations have meanwhile also been detected in other federal states as well as in other countries such as Australia or Denmark.
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In California, more and more tests, like here in Los Angeles, are detecting a new virus variant.
© Jill Connelly / imago-images
Corona mutations from the USA: How dangerous are the new variants?
Scientific studies are currently running on the exact excesses of the variants.
Well-founded results are not yet available, but the
New York Times
reported initial findings that the variants are more contagious and aggressive than the original version.
"I am increasingly convinced that this variant is transmitted locally more than others," the epidemiologist William Hanage is quoted with regard to the situation in California.
“But there is no evidence that it is of the same order of magnitude as B.1.1.7.” So the Californian variant seems to be at least less infectious than the British version.
Corona mutations from the USA: "This variant is very worrying"
At the same time, there are also somewhat more pessimistic statements from science: "This variant is very worrying because our data show that it is more contagious, makes a severe course of the disease more likely and is at least partially resistant to antibodies," says Charles Chiu, one of the authors currently ongoing study, opposite the journal
Science
.
The
medic told the
New York Times
, “I wish I had better news to deliver - that this variant is not significantly more contagious at all.
But unfortunately we only follow science. "
Corona mutations from the USA: no need to panic - "have no clues yet"
It should be mentioned that mutations per se are not uncommon.
Because viruses are constantly changing.
And so it may seem scary at first glance if more than 12,000 corona mutations were known by September 2020 alone, but the vast majority of them are no different from the original version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
It becomes problematic, however, if the new variants change the virus genotype too much.
Research has yet to show to what extent this is the case with the mutations from California and New York.
Even if some scientists are concerned about the first findings, the physician Dave Chokshi from the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene warns
Deutsche Welle
against
overinterpreting the early research results: “Whether it is spreading faster.
Whether it makes you sick worse.
Or whether it reduces the effectiveness of the vaccine - we have no evidence yet. "
(As)
List of rubric lists: © Jill Connelly / imago-images
