News in the UK about a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus capable of spreading more easily is causing public concern. However, virology experts say that it is still unclear whether this possibility and whether the new variant is more toxic than the other variants.

Basically, viruses usually change as they infect a community, and some viruses are more likely to change than others. This is also one of the reasons we need a new flu shot every year.

There have been many new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus recorded since the outbreak of Covid-19 in China nearly a year ago.

On December 19, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new restrictions due to concerns about a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Several European countries and Canada have also banned or restricted flights from the UK to prevent the spread of Covid-19 due to a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

What is worrying about the new strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus?

Medical experts in the UK and US say that this new variant is more likely to spread than other variants, but there is no evidence of whether its toxicity is higher than that of other variants.

Patrick Vallance, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser, said that this new variant “is spreading fast and is becoming the mainstream”, causing more than 60% of Covid-19 cases in London as of December.

Another worrying feature of this strain is that it has more than 20 mutations. Some of the mutations are in protein spikes, which are targeted in the way the vaccine works.

“I’m sure I’m worried about this,” but it’s too early to know how important it will ultimately be, said Dr. Ravi Gupta, who studies viruses at Cambridge University in the UK.

Viruses often get small changes over the course of normal evolution.

Most worrying is when a virus mutates by altering proteins on its surface to make it resistant to drugs that deal with the human immune system.

There is some evidence that this happens with a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, said Trevor Bedford, a biologist and geneticist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Some variants have also shown resistance to antibody treatments.

An official from the World Health Organization (WHO) told the BBC on December 20 that a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 was discovered in September 2020 in the southeastern UK and spread in the region. from that time period.