A guide to what you need to know

Viruses are mutating all the time, and it’s no surprise to experts that the coronavirus that emerged in China at the end of 2019 has undergone several important mutations as the virus replicates and spreads.

But a new strain of the virus that has emerged in South Africa is cause for concern. Like a variant that has been discovered in the UK in recent months, the one that has emerged in South Africa is shown to be much more heritable.

While being able to spread more easily, so far scientists don’t believe a new variant is more lethal. But being more transmissible means more people can be infected, which could mean more serious infections and more deaths as a result.

Questions are now being raised as to whether the coronavirus vaccines developed at breakneck speed last year, the Western pioneers being those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, will be effective against them. important mutations in the virus, such as the one identified in South Africa.

While scientists believe the British variant is unlikely to affect the effectiveness of vaccines currently being deployed in the West, there is more uncertainty regarding the South African strain.

Experts are keen to point out that there is still a lot we don’t know about the new strain, although this one and the one in the UK are under investigation, and they are urging people to do not panic. Here’s what we know so far:

On December 18, South Africa announced the detection of a new variant of the coronavirus which was spreading rapidly in three provinces of the country and was becoming the dominant strain in the provinces of the Eastern Cape, Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

South Africa named the variant “501Y.V2” because of the N501Y mutation found in the spike protein that the virus uses to enter body cells. This mutation, among others, was also found in the new strain identified by the UK in December (but estimated to have been in circulation since September), both of which are believed to increase the transmissibility of the virus, which makes it more efficient.

British and South African authorities alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) to the new mutations in December – both countries are notorious for their genomic sequencing, or “surveillance,” of the virus – the WHO noted that though both variants have been found in the UK (named ‘VOC-202012/01’, with VOC standing for ‘Variant of Concern’) and South Africa sharing the N501Y mutation, they are different.

The variant in South Africa carries two other mutations in the spike protein (E484K and K417N, among others) that are not present in the British strain, and experts have said this could affect how vaccines against Covid-19 work. .

Some experts and health officials are concerned about the South African variant, now better known as “501.V2”. So far, it has only been found in a handful of cases, the WHO noted on Tuesday, although in a growing number of countries, including the UK, France, Switzerland, Japan, l ‘Austria and Zambia.

Several countries have banned flights from South Africa (and the UK) due to new variants of the virus in an attempt to stop its spread.

Earlier this week, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the variant found in South Africa was of particular concern. “I am extremely worried about the South African variant, and that is why we have taken the steps we have taken to restrict all flights from South Africa,” he told the BBC “Today” program.

“It’s a very, very important problem … and it’s even more of a problem than the new British variant,” he said, without further explanation.

Former FDA chief Dr Scott Gottlieb on Tuesday warned that vaccinating Americans against Covid is more critical than ever, especially as the new South African variant appears to inhibit antibody-based drugs and spread elsewhere.

“The South African variant is of great concern right now as it looks like it may be able to avoid some of our medical countermeasures, especially antibody-based drugs,” Gottlieb told “The News with Shepard Smith on Tuesday. “on CNBC.

“Right now, this strain appears to be widespread in South America and Brazil, the two parts of the world, right now, which are in the summer, but are also experiencing a very dense epidemic, and that’s worrying.

For their part, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) noted Sunday that scientists are studying the variants “to better understand how easily they could be transmitted and whether currently licensed vaccines will protect people against them.”

“Currently, there is no evidence that these variants cause more serious illness or an increased risk of death. New information on the virological, epidemiological and clinical characteristics of these variants is emerging rapidly, ”he added.

As countries scramble to launch immunization programs or speed up those already underway, such as the UK, experts noted that one of the biggest potential consequences of emerging variants is their “ability to escape. to natural or vaccine-induced immunity ”.

“Vaccination and natural infection with SARS-CoV-2 (the coronavirus) produce a ‘polyclonal’ response that targets several parts of the spike protein. The virus would probably need to accumulate several mutations in the spike protein to escape immunity induced by vaccines or by natural infection, ”the CDC noted on Sunday in its brief on emerging variants.

The ability to evade vaccine-induced immunity is, for the CDC, the most worrying potential consequence of emerging strains “because once a large part of the population is vaccinated there will be an immune pressure that could promote and accelerate the emergence of these variants by selecting for ‘escape mutants.’ “

The CDC stressed, however, that “there is no evidence that this happens, and most experts believe escape mutants are unlikely to emerge due to the nature of the virus.”

How was he born?

How and where these variants originated are unclear, experts point out, noting that it is unfair to “blame” countries for the mutations, given that they could have come from anywhere but were discovered by some countries “looking for them”, that is to say those which carry out advanced surveillance for viruses and are therefore likely to find more mutations.

The UK variant, for example, was found by the ‘Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium’, which is undertaking random genetic sequencing of positive samples for Covid-19 across the UK. Since its inception in April 2020 , the consortium sequenced 170,256 virus genomes from people infected with Covid-19. It uses the data to track outbreaks and identify virus variants, and publishes its data weekly.