The coronavirus is evolving before our very eyes.
While scientists are racing against the clock to develop an effective vaccine against Covid-19, the virus is coming up with new ways to confuse us.
S’pore Researchers Found New Strain of Coronavirus That is ‘Weaker’ But Could Impact Vaccine Development
A new strain of the coronavirus that causes less severe infections has been discovered in Singapore by researchers, according to a new study in the medical journal The Lancet.
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Researchers say this latest strain emerged early in the pandemic in Wuhan and was exported to Singapore and Taiwan.
In fact, it was detected soon after the coronavirus reached Singapore’s shores, as confirmed patients were found to have the variant in January and February.
The good news is that those infected with the new variant had better clinical outcomes than those infected by other strains, suggesting this new strain could be less deadly.
ST reported that a smaller percentage of these patients experienced hypoxia (where the body is short of oxygen), where supplemental oxygen would be required.
Since this is the first time a new Covid-19 strain has been proven to have a clinical difference based on its genetic variation, studies on the variant could have implications for the development of vaccines.
As one expert said: “This suggests that gene variations may have an important role in defining the disease outcome.”
Other Strains Discovered
In the past week, one strain has been making the headlines after Malaysia’s director-general of health, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, claimed it was 10 times more infectious.
Many experts in Singapore have contested Dr Noor’s claims about the D614G mutation, saying there is no scientific data to support them.
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However, Dr Paul Tambyah, president-elect of the International Society of Infectious Disease, said that even if it were more infectious, this may not be bad news, as it could be less lethal.
“Maybe that’s a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly,” Dr Tambyah said in an interview with Reuters.
He added that viruses tend to become less potent as they mutate.
“It is in the virus’ interest to infect more people but not to kill them because a virus depends on the host for food and for shelter,” he said.
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Wait, so what does that mean for vaccines?
Vaccines Will Likely Still Be Effective
According to Healthline, Covid-19 vaccines currently in development will still be effective against new strains of the coronavirus.
To understand why, one has to grasp how mutations form.
See, the new coronavirus is an RNA virus: a collection of genetic material packed inside a protein shell.
When an RNA virus finds a host (a human or animal body) it starts to make new copies of itself that can infect other bodies.
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Think of it as the Starbucks of the virus world.
Though RNA viruses are more prone to changes and mutations, these mutations occur at a very slow pace, according to Healthline.
And when it does mutate, the new copies aren’t that different from the original virus.
So, even if a new strain were more infectious or deadly, it would likely not impact the efficacy of vaccines.
This is because vaccines target an early version of the virus, and since the new strains are not that far off, it will be effective against them too.
Usually, an older strain of a virus will “preserve enough features” that it will provide immunity against a whole group of variants,” said Dr Benjamin Neuman, the head of the biology department at Texas A&M University-Texarkana.
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So, even if you keep reading about new variants, there’s likely nothing to worry about.
Unless a completely new coronavirus emerges, of course.
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