Will the new COVID variant in the US affect vaccines and why is it more contagious?

New variant of COVID What appears to be the first to surface in Britain was discovered in Colorado on Tuesday, and health officials confirmed that a man in his twenties who had never traveled had the disease.

Much remains unknown about the new strain, but analysis conducted by British authorities shows that it is up to 70% more infectious than other variants, leading to a surge in cases in London and southeast England. It plays an important role.

According to the British government, genetic evidence suggests that new variants emerged in September and were generally distributed at low levels until mid-November.

Authorities say there is no evidence that it causes a more serious illness or a higher chance of death, but “mortality is a late indicator,” and the investigation continues.

Scientists are now studying whether this new variant, named VUI-202012 / 01, affects multiple effects. COVID vaccination Deployed all over the world, Including those developed by Pfizer /BioNTech, modern And Oxford /AstraZeneca..

Are the new variants resistant to the vaccine?

The mutant strain, called B.1.1.7 by U.S. authorities, is believed to spread faster than previous novels. CoronavirusExperts say research is underway to determine if currently licensed vaccines can protect people.

However, vaccine makers seemed optimistic that prophylactic drugs could fight new mutants or could be adapted to do so in a relatively short period of time by tampering with the messenger RNA section (mRNA) Used for vaccines.

“The beauty of messenger RNA technology is that we can directly start designing vaccines that perfectly mimic this new mutation.” BioNTech boss Uguru Sahin At a press conference this month, Pharmaceutical News outlets said PMLiVE report.

Unlike traditional vaccines, which introduce a weakened virus into the body and rush to defend against infections. mRNA Vaccines do not use the causative live virus COVID So they take no risk COVID infection.

instead, mRNA Vaccines provoke an immune response by causing cells to produce the harmless spike proteins found on the surface of the virus. COVID, Teaching the body to fight infectious diseases, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

AstraZeneca And modern They made a similar statement that their vaccine should be able to fight new strains of the virus — and some scholars seemed to agree.

“They can do that because all they can do is change the RNA of the vaccine to match the new mutation and then make antibodies against the mutation. We have the flu vaccine every year. We will do that at, “Stanford University epidemiologist Dr. Yvonne Maldonado told ABC7.Please note that there are many COVID Wild variety.

British government previously Said Online, “Currently, there is no evidence to suggest that the Pfizer vaccine does not protect people from new variants.”

In general, experts say how many of the most effective ways existing health advice (social distance, hand washing, face masks) can limit the likelihood of getting a disease that has led to the death of more than 346,500 people in the United States. Say it’s still

Adding to the list of unknowns is how popular new things are COVID Subspecies have spread to Colorado or other parts of the country. Colorado politics On Tuesday, he reported that a second suspicious case had been identified in the state, but details were scarce.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is in the process of investigating whether the mutant is associated with an antibody response or altered vaccine efficacy and has also been found in Australia, Denmark, Italy, Iceland and the Netherlands. I have confirmed that it is.

CDC warned The “ongoing trip” between the UK and the US is a new but “increasing import potential” fact sheet Coronavirus He said it was a subspecies and could exist in the United States without being detected.

“Scientists learn more about this variant to better understand how easily it can be transmitted and whether currently licensed vaccines protect people from it. “We are working to do this,” he added, adding that the facts are still “rapidly emerging.”

Authorities said there was “no evidence” that the effectiveness of the vaccine would be affected, and most experts said that “this is unlikely” due to the nature of the drug’s composition.

Despite the ongoing vaccine deployment, Dr. Anthony Fauci have Warn that pandemics are likely to “worse” For the holiday season.He used to Advice not to travel for Christmass And to avoid large gatherings.

Why are new variants more susceptible to transmission?

Experts from the UK’s New Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group, as well as its impact on approved vaccinesNervous day) Earlier this month, “The mechanism underlying the increase Transmission rateThe “new strain” is unknown, but there were some signs that it was likely to infect children.

The UK Government said: “We know that mutations in the peplomer protein, which is the infectious part of the virus, can alter the interaction of the virus with human cells, but the mechanism by which this infection increases is still unknown.

“Evidence shows that infection rates in geographic areas where this particular subspecies circulates increased faster than expected, and modeling evidence shows that other subspecies are currently circulating. It has been shown to have a higher infection rate than variants. ”Scientists’ investigations are ongoing.

Patients with new variants may be heavily loaded with the virus in their blood, according to a study from PHE Birmingham, Institute of Public Health, detailing possible reasons for higher infections, not yet peer-reviewed Parents report.

“Patients with this variant appear to be high in viral load, and it’s clear that they are susceptible to other people,” said Dr. Michael Kidd, who led the team. He emphasized that the analysis was “preliminary and needs to be repeated.”