Report by : Gan Yung Chyan, KUCINTA SETIA
As the devastating 2020 that causes many people to lose money to the pandemic, election fraud and scams is about to pass, 2021 presents us with full of unknowns and uncertainties. StayGate wishes everyone a happy, safe and smooth new year despite unhappiness and challenges.
At the end of 2020, there are still big things going on. The global election in the United States has not ended. Many people are still watching the possibility of Trump's re-election. On the other side of the earth, variants of SARS-CoV-2 (CCP virus, covi) spread rapidly from Europe, casting a shadow on people and adding a little anxiety. While the first nurse in Singapore was vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech SARS-CoV-2 vaccine on 30 December 2020, the new UK strain of covi was found on a Singapore Airlines pilot that had returned to Singapore.
New virus variant cited for reason of complete lockdown
The British government announced on December 19 that a more infectious and more easily out of control variant of the CCP virus appeared in the UK. The new strain spreads 70% faster than the previous virus. As of the week of December 20, reports from all parts of the UK show that the number of cases increased by 51% from the previous week, and stricter lockdown measures were subsequently announced. More than half of new patients in the UK are now tested for covi.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock also said afterwards that the new variant has been "out of control" and everyone must be as careful as if they are infected with the virus.
The mutant virus has now spread to many countries including Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands and Italy. Many European countries, Canada, India, etc. have issued bans to the UK. South Africa has also discovered a new variant of the virus strain. Due to the surge in confirmed cases of infection, large-scale restrictions may continue until next year. People are talking about the new virus. About 40 countries have imposed travel bans on the United Kingdom.
The British Prime Minister originally said that imposing a lockdown order during Christmas is "inhumane", so he planned to give all British people a five-day reunion day from 23 to 27 December, allowing three families to gather indoors. But only 72 hours later, he changed his mind, the policy took a 180-degree turn, and the strict lockdown order was issued again.
Now, the number of people infected with the CCP virus in the world has exceeded 80 million, and it has increased by 20 million in the last month, which can be said to be a surge.
About the new covi mutation N501Y
The CCP virus is getting worse in terms of infectivity. What exactly happened?
The chief scientific adviser to the British government, Valance said, the virus strain was found in the southern part of the UK in September and then spread in the UK. Statistics in the United Kingdom in November showed that 28% of confirmed cases in London were from this variant virus. By mid-December, this number was close to two-thirds (62%).
So why not take action sooner? Because of the rapid spread of this new virus strain, it was only discovered by scientists late last week. At the time, British health officials were still debating whether the general public neglected the epidemic prevention or whether the covi was highly contagious that caused the rapid spread of the epidemic. Later, scientists further investigated and found that the infectivity of the new variant virus was significantly higher than that of other virus strains.
The new virus has 17 mutations. One of the important mutations is N501Y. This mutation allows the virus to enter cells more easily, and the virus content in patients infected with the new virus is higher, which may be more difficult to control. Today, about two-thirds of the cases in London are caused by it. However, there is no evidence that the new mutant virus will aggravate the disease or increase the fatality rate.
Will the mutant virus affect the vaccine effect?
As the United States began to promote vaccination, people's doubts about vaccines also followed.
Experts are still studying whether the vaccines now launched will become more effective or ineffective in dealing with variant viruses. Although health officials believe that the virus mutation will not affect the effectiveness of the vaccine, there is no official conclusion yet.
What is worrying is that the vaccines developed by Pfizer, Modena, Oxford, etc., which have been concerned by the outside world so far, are all against the spike protein of the virus to some extent, and the mutation of the virus also mainly occurred in the spike protein. Professor Ravindra Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology, said, “The virus may be evading the vaccine, and the first few steps have been taken. If we let it continue to add a few more mutations, we will start to be vigilant.”
Since the first outbreak in Wuhan, covi has mutated twice a month. If large-scale vaccination is carried out, it may also promote more mutations in covi. Although most experts believe that the newly developed vaccine can still fight against the new British variant virus, if the virus mutation can really make the existing vaccine ineffective, countries may have to continue to develop new vaccines as they did for flu confrontation.
Variations are not rare but elusive
Viral mutations are not uncommon. So far, experts have found thousands of variants of covi. However, most virus mutations have no effect on the infectivity of the virus and the severity of symptoms.
Gupta said that as early as April, Swedish researchers discovered a virus strain with two genetic mutations, which roughly doubled the infectivity of the virus. Approximately 6000 cases around the world are infected by this strain of the virus, most of which are concentrated in Denmark and the United Kingdom. Later, other variants of this virus strain appeared one after another. For example, some people were infected on mink farms in Denmark. Among the multiple mutations of the variant new coronavirus discovered in South Africa, there are also two genetic mutations seen in the past.
In addition to these two variants, the variant virus discovered in the UK this time has other variants, including variants of eight spinous proteins. This is called "variations under investigation" because the magnitude of the effects of these changes is currently unknown.
Unknowns and doubts caused by vaccines
In fact, many people are worried about vaccines. The true effectiveness of a vaccine also depends on the universality of the vaccine. If there are not enough people vaccinated, then its effectiveness will be greatly reduced.
The results of the covi vaccines during the clinical study are not much different from the conventional side effects of other vaccines, and they are currently safe but there are several factors we must consider. The vaccines have not yet been used on a large scale, and patients have been using the vaccines for a short period of time. It is unclear whether there will be long-term side effects.
However, the vaccines have only been used for about three months, and the long-term effects and side effects are not clear. The sample of the study population is not large enough.
The most important thing is that, theoretically, the mRNA used to make vaccines is messenger ribonucleic acid, which can pass through the cell membrane and enter the cytoplasm. It is also possible to pass through the nucleus membrane to enter the nucleus, thereby interfering with the cell's genetic material. According to the US Centers for Disease Control, the vaccine is currently safe and will actively pay attention to its safety. At the same time, it is very clear that the vaccine will not enter the nucleus and interfere with genetic material but whether the vaccines will have long-term and serious consequences is a topic worthy of everyone's continued attention.
Meanwhile, as we enter the new year, let's learn to be frugal during the pandemic, stop the hearts of greed and pray that good prevails against evil, and support everyone in dire straits.
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