New variants of COVID-19 are behaving like new viruses and may derail vaccine hopes
At the end of 2020, as the world bid good riddance to a dreadful year, there was a great sense of hope that the impending rapid rollout of COVID-19 vaccines would see us turn a corner.
After several months of illness, death, economic destruction and societal upheaval, the promise of herd immunity via inoculations surely meant life was slowly returning to normal.
But experts have today issued a dire warning that several new “variants of concern” spreading around the globe are acting in new and terrifying ways, and threaten to wash away the precious ground that’s been gained.
And ultimately, it could mean that the war against COVID-19 is lost – even with effective vaccines.
“Put simply, the game has changed, and a successful global rollout of current vaccines by itself is no longer a guarantee of victory,” a cohort of leading international medical and public health experts wrote in an article for The Conversation.
The alarming outlook, penned by academics from University College London, Columbia University, Barcelona Institute for Global Health, Monash University, University of Auckland, McMaster University and the CAPRISA in South Africa, matches with a disturbing trend.
Several new ‘variants of concern’
Genetic mutations of viruses occur pretty frequently but they’re only deemed to be ‘of concern’ if they are more infectious than the original, cause more severe illness or are deadlier, or can reinfect.
Scientists knew COVID-19 was going to eventually evolve and mutate – that’s what viruses do. But they thought it would take years, not months.
“We expected the virus to change,” Dr Michael Diamond, a viral immunologist at Washington University, told The New York Times. “We didn’t quite anticipate how quickly it was going to occur.”
Already, 12 months on from the declaration of a worldwide pandemic, there are at least three strains of concern – colloquially, the UK strain, the South African strain and the Brazilian strain.
They’re highly infectious, cause greater illness and are deadlier than what we’ve seen to date – and they impact population groups that have so far gone unscathed.
“COVID-19 variants of concern have changed the game,” the cohort of academics wrote in The Conversation.
“We need to recognise and act on this if we as a global society are to avoid future waves of infections, yet more lockdowns and restrictions, and avoidable illness and death.”
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/new-variants-of-covid19-are-behaving-like-new-viruses-and-may-derail-vaccine-hopes/news-story/09a47e2afda8e4e7b0b4303850c13a0c
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