How afraid should we be of the COVID-19 variant?
Over 4 million. That is the number of people killed by COVID-19 worldwide as of Thursday.At least it Officially reported number.. As SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, continues to spread, it is mutating. It is these new strains of the virus that are primarily driving the latest surge in the unvaccinated population around the world. With the emergence of dangerous variants of the virus, public health officials are increasingly concerned about the ability of the virus to mutate to versions that may not protect fully vaccinated people. Vaccines still provide a high level of protection against known variants and are particularly good at preventing serious illness in fully vaccinated people. Vaccine infection control mechanisms are currently effective. The worst scenario is the development of mutants that can escape protection from the vaccine, he says. Brandon Dionne, Assistant Clinical Professor of Pharmacy and Medical Systems Science, Northeastern University. Thats what we really worry about.  Thats happening to some extent already, but not yet at a level of concern, Dionne says. Since the delta mutant epidemic, there have been more breakthrough cases of COVID-19 reported in fully vaccinated people than when previous versions of the virus prevailed. Still, Dionne said the risk of mutations has increased the sense of urgency for vaccination efforts, especially in communities and countries with low vaccination rates. Higher levels of vaccination explain that conditions that require the virus to thrive and mutate can diminish the emergence of mutants. Mansoor Amiji A prominent professor of pharmaceutical science and chemical engineering at Northeastern University. The virus survives by replicating itself, the virus itself cannot replicate, he says. You need a host cell to replicate. And when you give the virus a cell, you know how to make a copy of itself. And when it makes a copy, it can make mistakes. there is. Some of these changes can create more dangerous variations of the virus. If the infected person is surrounded by an immune person, the virus cannot find any more hosts to continue the process, says Dionne. The larger the pool of people who can get infected, the more likely it is that mutations will be seen and then new mutations will occur, he says. And ultimately, one of these mutants may evade the immune response from the vaccine.  However, this usually does not happen overnight. Rather, Amiji says these mutations are usually very small. And in a way, thats good news for us.  Think about how the virus infects. The coronavirus invades through the nose and seeks to find its receptors on various surfaces of cells that are basically part of the upper respiratory tract. It binds to its receptor through the peplomer portion of the virus, which is the mode in which the virus has access to the cell, says Amiji. Its almost like a lock and key mechanism. The virus finds that particular lock, has that key in the peplomer, and can be involved.  The vaccine trains the immune system to identify coronavirus spelomers and block the development of lock-and-key matches. A fully vaccinated immune system can create antibodies that bind to the viral peplomer and neutralize it to prevent cell invasion. And, according to Amiji, the vaccine encodes the entire protein, so even if one or two amino acids in the protein change when the virus replicates and mutates, the antibody still largely recognizes the virus. You can attack. Now, when the virus alters this whole protein, these vaccines are no longer effective, he says. These small mutations can allow some virus particles to sneak through the antibody without being detected, Amiji said. Therefore, as these mutations accumulate in peplomer proteins, there is concern that antibodies will become increasingly difficult to identify them. That is what causes breakthrough cases in fully vaccinated individuals. , I have a cold in essence. Neil Mania He is a professor of public health practice, a vice chairman of the Faculty of Health Sciences, and a master director of public health programs in the northeast. I think its pretty effective.  But if youre vaccinated, thats not a reason to sit down in our glory, says enthusiasts. The delta variant shows what this virus can do. And the virus will continue to mutate. And they suddenly do not for our benefit, but for their benefit. It will mutate.   The delta mutant is also the most contagious and infectious version of SARS-CoV-2 and appears to have spread worldwide to date. It currently accounts for more than half of all new infections in the United States and, if not more, is the predominant strain in the world. As the coronavirus has shown over and over again, the disease and its changes have spread rapidly worldwide. Viruses like coronavirus do not require passports or visas to travel to different parts of the world, says Amiji. Therefore, vaccination efforts need to take a global approach. If this infection remains somewhere in the world, no one will be 100% safe. Any Its part of the world.   Still, he says. Its not scary, but its still with us and we have to be vigilant.  For media inquiriesPlease contact Jessica Hair. [email protected] Or 617-373-5718.