New strain of coronavirus: do first-generation vaccines work?

There are no scientific certainties as it is a transforming reality, but, in principle, COVID-19 vaccines have developed so far they would be effective against the new strain of coronavirus detected in the UK, said European experts cited by the German Minister of Health.

“I am concerned about tampering with a protein where the ‘key to entering the system’ is located, and for this reason the PCR used for diagnosis could give a false negative. Even the vaccine that was made for the viral genome that didn’t have this mutation, might not be as effective now“On the other hand, asked Argentinian pediatrician Marta Cohen, who has now received more than 100 interview requests from Argentina, given the concern over this issue.

This new strain, called “N5017”, accelerates the transmission of the virus by 70%. “For all we know so far, and after the discussions that have taken place between experts from the European authorities,” the new variant of the virus “has no impact on vaccines” which continue to be “Equally effective”, Minister Jens Spahn told state broadcaster ZDF.

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The three most advanced vaccines develop an immune response against the peak of the virus. These are doses that cause the immune system to attack different parts of the virus, so even if part of the virus has changed, vaccines should work.

In Italy, the Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, clarified that “it is a variant that accelerates the spread of the virus, but the first information indicates that does not appear to be more deadly, but rather more infected product, and it continues to be a very serious problem ”.

To reassure the public, Ewan Birney, deputy director general of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and co-director of its European Institute of Bioinformatics in Cambridge, provided some guidelines to consider that, despite the faster transmission, the new strain gave no indication of being more harmful.

“If the new variant were to have an impact on the severity of the disease, we would have already seen it. The proportion of people hospitalized due to the number of infections is said to have skyrocketed or dropped dramatically. Neither happened, so we can conclude that the impact on the number of severe cases is likely modesto: slightly higher or lower than that which had been observed, ”said the expert in statements published by elDiario.es.

The prestigious professor Massimo Galli, director of the infectious diseases department of the Luigi Saco hospital in Milan, expressed his opinion: “My first words are an invitation to calm. We are faced with a variant of the virus which is not more harmful, but which perhaps has a greater capacity for dissemination and from this point of view, because the contagion is faster, he is more aggressive ”.

“I ask people to be responsible, this new mutation can only be managed if we move away, if we keep our distance. It’s the only way to slow down the mutation, ”Cohen asked.