British super-contagious strain ‘will take the world by storm’, warns scientist

The new strain of coronavirus emerged in UK, also known as strain KentHe could become the most dominant and dangerous in the world, the director of the UK genetic surveillance program has warned.

Professor Sharon Peacock, Director of the Consorcio Covid-19 Genomics UK (Cog-UK), alerted in a BBC podcast that the British strain B.1.1.7 “go to to shave the world, in all probability ”.

And he added: “Once we get over the Covid or it turns and stops being virulent, causing disease, then we can stop worrying about it.”

“For the future, we will have this for years. In my opinion, we will continue to do so in 10 years ”he cautioned on the podcast.

New mutation in British strain threatens Covid-19 vaccines

Kent strain was first detected in September 2020 and its rapid spread across the country prompted the UK government to take tougher action in December. Thinks that up to 70% more contagious than the previous dominant strain in the UK.

Professor Peacock said the transmissibility of the mutation is likely to cause difficulties for scientists in the years to come, but added that all vaccines approved by the UK appear to work against existing variants of the coronavirus.

However, the strain of Kent seems be movenotdo quickly, in what scientists describe as a disturbing development.

UK variant of Covid gains strength as infections decline in US

Professor Calum Semple, advisor to Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), suggested that the risk of the UK strain and other versions of the virus continuing to evolve was “inevitable” and “will occur over time”, and this mutation would likely be part of it.

Speaking of the threat, Professor Ravi Gupta, an infectious disease expert at the University of Cambridge, said: “There may be more cases there given the high transmission. We must continue to vaccinate and reduce transmission ”.

What do we know about Cape Kent?

• The British strain B.1.1.7 was first discovered in Kent (UK) and dates back to September 2020. Scientists noticed that it was spreading in November and was revealed to the public in December.
• The strain, which is a version of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus that causes Covid-19, has a series of mutations that change the shape of the spike protein on the outside. The main one is known as N501Y, which is said to make it stick better to the cells of the body and make it more likely to cause infections and spread faster.
• British scientists are pretty sure that the mutations carried by the Kent strain do not significantly affect the way the immune system can handle it. People who have a vaccine based on an older version of the virus, or who have already been infected with Covid-19, are likely to be immune.
• More than 50 countries have already detected the British strain (including 38 from Europe), which has evolved to become 70% more infectious than the original coronavirus.
• Scientists fear that the strain has started mutating faster to look more like the one that evolved in South Africa, which is better able to withstand the immunity developed by past infections or Covid vaccines.
• There are currently four worrying strains of the coronavirus that causes Covid: three of them were found in the UK and the fourth is the Brazilian variant. identified in people who have traveled to Japan.

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