Reassuring news about a new strain of the virus

COVID MUTATION. A new strain of coronavirus found in England is causing concern to health officials around the world. But indicates that everything is controlled by the vaccine.

[Mis à jour le 22 décembre 2020 à 10h56] Of the new breed Corona virus The innovation in the United Kingdom is of considerable concern, mainly due to its contagious nature over other variants of Kovid-19. What exactly do we know about this Kovid mutation found in the south of England? Can the virus destroy all the scientific work undertaken to control the coronavirus epidemic? Point answers to questions.

The real good news that assures health officials is that vaccines that are already used or will be used are effective against English mutations. “In terms of vaccines, there’s not much difference between the two viruses. In the event of a change, scientists will be able to respond quickly: “By changing some part of the formula we can do exactly that for vaccines against influenza. It is not too complicated to do”. The CEO of Biotech Labs, which developed the vaccine with Pfizer, guarantees that his team will be able to deliver a new vaccine “within six weeks” in the event of a significant mutation.

The French health minister also said there was “no reason to believe the vaccine would be less effective”. The WHO, which currently hopes to stop this mutation by promoting vaccines, also shared an analysis.

Travel to the southeast of London and the country was banned to prevent the spread of this variant of Kovid in England. British virologists estimate that a mutation of the virus appeared in London or Kent in mid-September. According to their estimates, 62% of pollution in London in December was due to mutations. England’s Director General for Health Chris Witty expressed his concern in a statement “The The Advisory Panel (NerveTag) on ​​New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats now hopes that this new strain of virus could spread faster than other variants. “” This virus [soit] Much more contagious than the previous breed, ”p^r John Edmonds, de la London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Sur Science Media Center. Boris Johnson said the new mutation could be transmitted “up to 70% easily”.

The British Minister of Health regretted that “the new stress (coronavirus, editor’s note) was not under control”, justifying the imposed control measures, but clarified that the work in progress was no longer showing symptoms. Serious. “There are no indications that it could be more deadly or that it could cause a more severe form of the disease,” the British prime minister said.

A new mutation has also been observed in South Africa. Scientists say this variant can sometimes cause severe forms of the disease in young patients who do not have co-morbidities. Named the “Variant 501.V2”, this new species is associated with what was found in the United Kingdom. Minister Jwelini Mkhaiz described it as a “similar variant” Point. Differences are common to all viruses, According to experts, And this is the case with Kovid-19, which has already experienced 12,000 variations.

A case contaminated with this version of Kovid-19 was found in Italy. “A variant of the virus is likely to spread in France,” Health Minister Olivier Veron agreed on December 21 in Europe. Mutation is likely to be active from the beginning of autumn across the channel, so cases of contamination in France‌ cannot be ruled out. On social networks, Kovil Tracker founder Guillome Rogier said, “The United Kingdom is … 100 times more than France!” And this mutation is well in the country. CNRS researcher and infectious disease modeling expert Samuel Allison confirmed in Liberation a few days ago that France was a poor student in the course of the disease. “France shared 2,500 scenes against 123,000 for the United Kingdom,” he explained.

On December 21, Emmanuel Macron described the mutation of the virus as “problematic”. “We need to redouble our vigilance. All this shows the complexity of the virus, its aggression, its innovation and the humility I always have to say,” he said at the crisis meeting. Proving that the discovery of this mutation of the coronavirus was at the forefront of the state, France chose to close its border to travel with the United Kingdom for 48 hours to protect itself from contamination on its soil. The Netherlands, Belgium and Italy have also announced the suspension of flights and trains from the United Kingdom and “reduced” relations with Germany. On December 21, the Spanish government announced that it had decided to suspend flights from the United Kingdom from Tuesday, in agreement with its Portuguese counterpart, as a new, more infectious species of coronavirus was discovered in the territory. British.

When our colleagues at RTL asked about this, virologist Bruno Lena, a member of the Scientific Council, believed that the infectious clone was not highly pathogenic and “did not lead to more serious infections than other variants. According to a study published in late November in the reference journal Nature, the researchers found that “repetitive mutations currently in circulation appear to be evolutionarily neutral and are primarily induced by the human immune system, RNA by edition”. For a race found in the south of England, the resolutions are the same, “having a priori N501Y without disturbing the variant transition”, Franయిois Balloux, director of the Institute of Genetics at University College London, explained.

When asked about this, Jean-Franకోois Del Fracci, president of the Scientific Council in France, believes that we should be careful not to be vigilant. “Fear is a real mutation of the spike protein, which allows the virus to hang. However, what the English have described is related to this protein, and the data indicate that the virus is more contagious. “He told the Parisians in mid-December.