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LONDON – The dominant variant of the coronavirus in the UK is becoming increasingly resistant to vaccines, scientific experts have warned.
Two leading scientists in the UK warned on Wednesday that the variant of the virus first identified in Kent had acquired the same E484K mutation on its spike protein which makes it the South African variant. so worrying for experts.
Public health authorities are closely monitoring two emerging variants from the UK. The first of these two local variants was mostly found in Bristol and the south-west, where experts have confirmed 15 cases, with six more in other parts of England. The second variant is located in Liverpool and the north-west, with a cluster of 42 cases confirmed to date.
Sharon Peacock, executive director and chair of the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium (COG-UK), told POLITICO in an interview that it was a “big concern” because mutation has been associated with vaccine immunity and reinfection in South Africa.
“Our local variant develops this mutation over and over again, possibly through a process of natural selection,” she said. “If the virus takes advantage of a particular mutation, it is likely that it will persist in the population and increase. It is becoming very worrying in the country. “
Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street on Wednesday, UK government chief science adviser Patrick Vallance said “it is not surprising” that the Kent variant has evolved in this way and that this will also happen elsewhere.
“By getting this variant, it’s slightly more likely to look different than the immune system, so we have to be careful,” Vallance said. “We need to stay on top and continue to test the effects of the vaccine in this situation.”
Peacock said the UK government’s approach to border checks, which will become stricter from Monday, is “overall good” as testing people after they arrive, as well as sequencing the genome of positive cases, will allow the UK to understand how the virus could mutate in other parts of the world.
But she warned that tough border controls will not offer full protection to the British population as “it is likely that variations will emerge in the UK unrelated to border control”, as is happening in Bristol.
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The Peacock-led consortium is offering whole-genome sequencing of coronavirus samples to the National Health Service and the UK government. British experts are currently sequencing 27,000 genomes per week, but that number will continue to rise, she said, while British experts are also sharing their tools and data with the aim of increasing the capacity of other countries.
Peacock said a total of 26 countries in Asia, Europe and Africa had so far engaged in the UK’s work, though she declined to name any. “The building blocks to be able to do the sequencing are pretty much there in a lot of places that have sufficient resources,” she said.
The consortium chairman added, “It’s about how you network, and it really has to do with cooperation and collaboration, and putting the whole system together, from patient to test to test. through the generation of sequences and then back to public health. It’s a pretty complicated business to set up. “
The entire sequencing process, from the time a COVID-19 patient is tested, through to the interpretation of the sequencing data, currently takes around five days at the SANGER Institute in Cambridge and slightly longer in the regional laboratories. “We’re constantly working on our turnaround time at the moment,” said Peacock. “For an effective outbreak investigation, you really need to have the response test within 36 hours,” she said.
This article is part of POLITICOPremium Police Service: Pro Health Care. From drug pricing, EMA, vaccines, pharmacy and more, our specialist journalists keep you up to date on topics driving the health policy agenda. E-mail [email protected] for a free trial.
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