Delta and beta variants make pandemic a serious new problem

Reports from England and Scotland indicate that the vaccines are less effective against Delta; the first dose is 15-20% less effective, although two doses seem to work better. The reduction in efficacy has been observed both in patient data and in laboratory tests.

In France, the health authorities yesterday announced an “immediate action plan” after detecting a source of contagion from Delta in a school in Strasbourg, in the east of the country.

Four positive cases have been confirmed and 43 close contact cases are “under investigation”.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said yesterday that the variant first identified in India that harasses Britons makes him more pessimistic about allowing the easing of restrictions scheduled for June 21 because the number of infections in the UK has reached levels that had not been seen since February. Danger

Daily infection levels have tripled in recent weeks. Johnson is expected to make an announcement tomorrow on the timeline for the uprising, the fourth step in his four-step plan for England’s revival.

South Africa

The Beta variant, dominant in South Africa, has already been detected in more than 80% of cases. It has an aggravating factor: it is able to escape antibodies from previous variants of the coronavirus, even in those who have already received two doses of one of the available vaccines.

Research conducted at Tel Aviv University (Israel) revealed that the beta variant is resistant to Pfizer and Biontech vaccines. The AstraZeneca vaccine is also ineffective, as demonstrated by another multicenter, double-blind, randomized, controlled trial in South Africa,

Beta spreads much faster between people, even compared to Delta and other variants of Covid-19. Because? It has changes in the strategic spike protein, which facilitates infection and accelerates its expansion in the body.

This produces a greater amount of virus in an infected person, which in turn can spread to other people more easily, leading to faster spread as a possible end result.

In South Africa, there were already more than 1.7 million cases and 57,410 deaths. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa decreed strict containment in May. The variant is to be feared to create epidemiological chaos similar to that experienced by India, with its international rebound still in the making.