Elevated COVID-19 mutations in Alabama; 50% of UK subspecies cases

COVID-19 mutants are becoming more and more common in Alabama as vaccination rates decline.

So far, existing vaccines are defensive against all strains of the mutation, but researchers say that vaccine-avoidance variants can occur anytime, anywhere.

“If more mutations occur and mutations that completely avoid neutralizing antibodies occur, that’s a big problem,” said Dr. Sixto Leal, a professor of medicine at UAB.

To monitor and learn about the virus and its evolution (or mutations), researchers use a process called genome sequencing to decipher genes in the virus.

Highly contagious UK variants account for about half of all new COVID cases in Alabama, up from about 1 percent in January, according to Dr. Leal, who assists in sequencing virus strains at UAB’s COVID-19 Sequence Lab. I am.

Other new mutations in the virus are also appearing more often, but none are common enough to name them. So far, none of the new variants appear to be significantly prevalent.

“Mutations are part of the natural course of the disease,” said Dr. Spencer Fox, a UT Austin researcher. According to experts, similar mutations are occurring in countries and around the world.

“For most of the pandemic process, there wasn’t much evolutionary pressure to evolve into a virus. Evolution wasn’t very advantageous because the population wasn’t very immune.” Dr. Fox said.

As more people are vaccinated, the virus must mutate to survive, Dr. Leal said.

“The proportion of these mutations known to cause infection in vaccinated individuals is high,” he said, and increased sequencing capacity at the state level is also mutated. He added that it may explain the identification of. ..

“(Mutation) is something to pay attention to, and if a particular variant shows evidence of diffusion, it becomes more interesting and to determine if it has transmission benefits. It needs to be evaluated, “said Dr. David Montefiori, a college surgeon.

Overall, the more people are vaccinated, the less likely the mutation will spread, despite the fact that the vaccine may be spurring the growth of new mutations, Dr. Leal said. Said.

“Vaccination has done a lot to slow the spread of COVID-19, and it continues to do so, but we need to carry more people to get rid of this virus completely. . “

about 32% of Alabama people take one or more doses Of the COVID-19 vaccine. Immunization rates have been steadily declining in the state over the last few weeks.

Vaccination number Fell in about half The state has been chasing the country since this time in Alabama last month. Percentage of the vaccinated population.

So far, existing vaccines are effective against COVID-19. This is because antibodies developed through vaccination or survival of COVID-19 are widely believed to be generally effective in preventing future infections.

Mutations similar to those tracked in Alabama have been identified in other parts of the country, albeit not yet named. Researchers are particularly interested in tracking mutations that can threaten the vaccine. Some new strains have characteristics similar to those of South African variants that have also been identified in Alabama, which have been shown to be more resistant to the vaccine.

“We want to see something worse than the South African subspecies. Other varieties are not as tolerant as the South African varieties,” said Montefiori.

Pfizer vaccine is still 75 percent Effective against South African variantsHe said, compared to 95 percent efficacy in the original strain of the virus.

“I think the important thing to do now is to vaccinate as many people as possible,” said Dr. Fox. “The more cases we can reduce, the less infection we have in the United States and the less risk we have of these variants.”