Worrying report. Fingers crossed this variant is less transmissible:
COVID-19: New B.1.1.529 variant 'worst one we've seen so far', say UK experts
Quote:
The UKHSA says B.1.1.529 has a spike protein which is "dramatically" different to the original COVID strain, and it has double the amount of mutations than the Delta variant.
These mutations are likely to evade the immune response generated by prior infection and vaccination, they say.
Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London, branded the mutations "really awful" but said cases were currently "super low".
Spike proteins are what viruses use to get into human cells, and some of the vaccines work by training the body to recognise the spikes and neutralise them.
Mutations on the spike could therefore potentially prove problematic for the current crop of vaccines.
|