Whelp, the COVID-19 is like that troublesome kid most of us know.
Every other day, you’ll hear some news about that kid and most times, it’s not good news.
And now, COVID-19 has yet another surprise for the world: Peekaboo! Let me introduce my cousin~
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Rest of the world: … Again?!
There’s Reportedly a New Coronavirus Strain That Could be Worse Than Delta
The B1.1529 variant of the coronavirus, coined as Nu, was first discovered in Botswana, Africa, on 11 Nov 2021.
It was first picked up by Imperial College London virologist Dr Tom Peacock who warns that the variant might be “of real concern”.
Three days later, the variant spread to South Africa, then jumped to Hong Kong.
As for how this variant might be worse than the Delta variant, it’s because the strain “escape from most known monoclonal antibodies”.
In layman’s terms, it means the strain might just dodge your body’s defences, leading to fresh outbreaks globally.
It Must Be Monitored Carefully
According to Doctor Peacock, the variant has an “extremely long branch length and incredibly high amount of spike mutations”.
He insisted that the variant should be monitored very carefully due to the horrific spike profile.
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Of course, the good doctor isn’t all doom and gloom; he holds some hope that the cluster he discovered could be an “odd cluster” which isn’t very transmissible.
Might Have Evolved From HIV/AIDS Patients
University College London’s Genetics Institute director Professor Francois Balloux stated that the variant seems to have accumulated a large number of mutations “in one burst”.
This makes it highly likely that it might have evolved “during a chronic infection of an immunocompromised person, possibly in an untreated HIV/AIDS patient”.
“It is difficult to know what to make of the carriage of both P681H and N679K. It is a combination we see only exceptionally rarely. I suspect it is generally not ‘stable’, but it might be so, in combination with other mutations/deletions.”
The professor said that he expected the variant to be “poorly recognised by neutralising antibodies related to Alpha or Delta”.
Nonetheless, he said, while a close eye should be kept on the variant, there’s no need to get overly concerned unless the frequency starts going up in the near future.
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