British strain will continue to mutate and sweep the world, UK expert says

The coronavirus has killed 2.35 million people worldwideBut the new variants have raised concerns that vaccines need to be adjusted and people need to step up inoculation.

Peacock noted that vaccines so far have been effective against variants in the UK, but mutations could affect vaccination results. “What is worrying about this is this variant 1.1.7. that we have circulated starts to mutate again and get new mutations that could affect the way we deal with the virus in terms of immunity and vaccine efficacy “, explained Peacock to the BBC.

This new mutation, first identified in Bristol, in the southwest of England, has been named a ‘variant of concern’ by the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group.

So far there are 21 cases of this variant which has the E484K mutation, which occurs in the spike protein of the virus, the same change as that observed in the South African and Brazilian variants.

There are three main known variants of concern to scientists: South African, known to scientists as 20I / 501Y.V2 or B.1.351; British or Kent, officially 20I / 501Y.V1 or B.1.1.7; and the Brazilian, called P.1.

The two COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer / BioNTech and AstraZeneca protect against the main UK variant.

“Once we’ve got the virus under control or it’s mutated to stop being virulent, that is, to cause disease, we can stop worrying about it. But I think in the future we will continue to do so for years to come. In my opinion, we will continue to do so for 10 years ”, he concluded.