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Credit: New Jersey National Guard via Flickr
What will happen next with the COVID-19 pandemic remains a wait-and-see situation, but University of Minnesota infectious disease expert Dr Michael Osterholm believes the new strain that has led to a new series tight lockdowns in the UK is a harbinger of things to come in America.
“What we’re seeing right now in England, I think, will be a harbinger of things to come,” Osterholm said, noting in his weekly podcast that the virus has spread to at least 33 countries, including United States. “where it’s going, I think it’s going to spread across the world and we can expect to see what’s happening in England happening in a lot of other places.”
There are two new confirmed variants of the coronavirus and neither have been confirmed in Minnesota, although Gov. Tim Walz said on Wednesday that “it’s probably here”.
“We’re looking for this variant, we have the capacity to do it in our public health lab,” said Jan Malcolm, commissioner for the Minnesota Department of Health. “We are continually looking for him.”
The one found in the UK and other parts of the world, including some US states, is known as B117. Another variant initially discovered in South Africa is known as B1351. What is extremely important is that the Centers for Disease Control has so far found no evidence to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines will not work against mutations.
And according to Reuters, Pfizer has conducted trials to see if its vaccine works against mutations, and announced Thursday evening that its vaccine appears to be effective against these two strains of the virus, although its study has yet to be investigated. peer review.
Osterholm recorded his last podcast before this announcement, but that would be good news as the mutation in South Africa was particularly relevant to him, after there were opportunities to opt out of vaccines made so far.
The CDC says the virus mutating to such a degree that it makes vaccines less effective would be the worst-case scenario, but there is no evidence that this happens, and most experts believe escape mutants are unlikely to emerge due to the nature of the virus. “
Vaccine makers said they would be able to modify vaccines to fight mutations, although it would potentially take at least six weeks to do so.
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Nevertheless, the coronavirus mutations are said to be more contagious, however, as the vaccination process is only just beginning in the United States.
In Britain, hospitalizations have skyrocketed, raising fears that more cases in America could lead to more hospitalizations and deaths at a time when the country is already breaking daily records.
“The first indicators show that this variant, although it is no longer fatal in terms of death rate, appears to be around 50 to 70% more contagious, which means that it takes less, that it is much more. fast and that it spreads very quickly, ”Walz said Wednesday.
Osterholm expects more variants to appear in time, saying he “wouldn’t be surprised if tomorrow we had an American variant found”.
“We just have to pray at this point that the vaccine-induced immunity, and to that degree, immunity against previous diseases, will provide protections against these particular strains,” Osterholm said.
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