On the 24th of last month, citizens are getting the Pfizer’s Corona 19 vaccine at a daily vaccination station in the Amazon.com facility in Seattle, Washington, USA. Seattle=AP Yonhap News
The’mutant virus’ is becoming the mainstream of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). The British mutant has become the dominant species of the pandemic, and the South African mutant even neutralizes the vaccine, giving only dark signals. There are more mountains to overcome until the end of the infectious disease.
The situation in the United States, the country with the largest infection of Corona 19, is particularly serious. Every ten days, the number of British mutant infections is doubling. If this is the case, the possibility of the UK mutation pushing the existing virus out and becoming the most common virus next month is raised. The Scripps Research Institute, a non-profit research organization, published a paper containing these findings on the 7th (local time) and warned that “we must prepare for the situation where the British mutation becomes the dominant species in most parts of the United States.” It almost fits with the outlook laid out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last month.
Specifically, the researchers analyzed 500,000 corona19 diagnostic tests and 212 genome sequences, and estimated that the UK mutation will account for 2% of all corona19 infections in the United States. In terms of numbers, it means that more than 1,000 people are infected every day. In Florida, 4% of new confirmed patients. The UK mutation has spread to more than 70 countries within a month since it was first reported on December 20 last year. The researchers emphasized that “immediate and decisive action is needed to minimize the rate of COVID-19 infection and mortality.”
However, the road to collective immunity is still long. Vaccine supply continues to be unable to keep up with demand. President Joe Biden, who was confident that he would form collective immunity by summer, also raised a white flag. President Biden confessed in an interview with CBS that day, “It was difficult to achieve collective immunity until summer because we could not secure enough vaccines.” As of that day, the cumulative number of vaccinations in the United States was only 41.2 million.
South Africa temporarily suspended vaccination on the 7th, according to a study finding that the AstraZeneca vaccine was less effective against the COVID-19 mutant virus. Johannesburg = AP Newsis
In addition to the supply of vaccines, mutant viruses are another obstacle to the formation of population immunity. This is because the commercialized Corona 19 vaccine was developed for the existing virus, and the efficacy against mutation cannot be guaranteed. In fact, South African health officials have put the AstraZeneca vaccination on hold, which was scheduled to start in the middle of this month. Unlike the British variant, the AstraZeneca vaccine is not effective in preventing the South African variant. In South Africa, mutant infections account for as much as 90% of new infections. This means, at least in South Africa, the vaccine is useless.
The South African case empirically proves that preventing the spread of mutations should be the top priority for COVID-19. This is because suppressing the existing mutation also reduces the risk of evolving into a new mutation that is more contagious. Then vaccination faster than the rate at which the virus mutates is the only solution at the moment. “What we have to do with the current vaccine is to get the vaccine to as many people as possible,” said Dr. Christian Anderson of the Scripps Institute.
Kim Pyo-hyang reporter [email protected]
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