Director of the United Kingdom’s genetic surveillance programme, Prof. Sharon Peacock, warns that COVID-19 global pandemic will likely persist for about 10 years to come. She says the new and more infectious variant of the contagion first found in Britain will become the world’s dominant strain.
The variant was christened B117 by scientists. Prof. Peacock warned that the variant is beginning to mutate again and getting new mutations, saying it could affect the way the virus is being handled in terms of immunity and the effectiveness of vaccines.
According to Yahoo News, Peacock is of the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium, and she spoke with the BBC Newscast podcast on Thursday.
Already, the worrisome COVID-19 variant has been detected in more than 51 countries, including Britain.
Peacock is convinced that the variant is “going to sweep the world, in all probability.”
Researchers say the characteristics of the B117 suggests that it is up to 70 percent more transmissible than the strain that caused the first wave of the pandemic.
“I think that what’s concerning about this is the B117 variant is beginning to mutate again and get new mutations, which could affect the way that we handle the virus in terms of immunity and the effectiveness of vaccines.
“And so, I think it’s concerning that the B117 is now mutating to have this new mutation that could threaten vaccination,” Prof. Peacock added.
Peacock, who is also a professor of public health and microbiology at the University of Cambridge, said that transmissibility was likely to cause scientists difficulties “for years to come.”
“Once we get on top of COVID-19 or it mutates itself out of being virulent [causing disease], then we can stop worrying about it.
“But I think, looking in the future, scientists are going to be doing this analysis of COVID variants for years. We’re still going to be doing this 10 years down the line, in my view,” Peacock added.
A study by Britain’s Office for National Statistics suggests that people infected with the UK variant are less likely to report a loss of taste and smell.
A member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), Prof. John Edmunds, advised the government to “keep borders pretty tight at the moment” because of the new variants being identified.
He also warned people to “be very cautious at the moment about travel abroad.”
source: Punch
