The new, more contagious variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 which initially detected in the U.K. and has now been spotted in many of the country. While some have referred to this as a new variant, others are calling it a strain as well as a mutation. However, experts say these terms are not interchangeable and all of them don’t necessarily apply to this change in the virus. What are your views on all this, please mention below.
However, a word of reassurance that such SARS-CoV-2 variants are unlikely to change the efficacy of the presently available vaccines in areas and countries with such mutations or variations of the genomic structure (1).
1. Article Emergence of a highly fit SARS-CoV-2 variant
A strain of a virus has distinct properties and a particular immune response. And if so, then there's going to be lots and lots of variants which will be, in many cases, minor accumulations of mutations and different kinds of genetic lines of that strain. As per the U.K. researchers, the new strain i.e. B.1.1.7 variant is up to 70% more transmissible because it has 22 coding changes to the virus genome, which is a bit alarming.
However, a word of reassurance that such SARS-CoV-2 variants are unlikely to change the efficacy of the presently available vaccines in areas and countries with such mutations or variations of the genomic structure (1).
1. Article Emergence of a highly fit SARS-CoV-2 variant
- First of all Mutation is an ongoing event during multiplication of any virus. When a certain MUTANT becomes pronounced by a detectable different characters, it is a VARIANT line of the same virus. When the variant establish in the environment, it is recognised as a STRAIN of the virus .
Thanks a lot Muhammad Yousuf Sir for your valuable participation in our discussion :)
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