British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits the Vaccine Center at Cwmbran Stadium in Wales on Feb. 17, 2021.
A hybrid version of the Chinese communist virus (Wuhan virus, Covid-19) has surfaced in California after a variant of the British Kent virus, and a strain of the virus found in the United States, merged in infected people. This variant has not yet been named and has only been discovered once, but scientists fear there could be more cases and possibly new strains of the virus that spread quickly and evade immunity.
Experts are concerned because it carries a mutation that appears to allow it to spread faster and also escape some antibodies acquired from past infections or vaccines, the Daily Mail reported Feb. 17. It is formed by the Kent virus variant (scientifically known as B.1.1.7), and the California variant B.1.429.
The New Scientist, quoted by the newspaper, reports that scientists in the United States claim that the two variants merged in a “recombination event”. This happens when two different versions of the virus infect the same cell and then swap genes while they are multiplying and developing a new variant.
Researchers have warned in the past that while these events are possible, they are “unlikely” because they require very specific conditions and a coincidence of mostly uncontrollable events. They are more likely to occur during large-scale outbreaks.
It is believed to have occurred in this instance because a number of mutations matching those on the Kent and California variants were all present in the same place at the same Time. No details are available on the patients, and it is not clear if this combination occurred in them or if they contracted this combination of variants from someone else.
While experts say there is no need to panic about the new variants, one admitted that the merger is “dangerous” because it could suddenly change the virus.
The British government, apparently concerned about the spread of variants that could escape the immunity of the current vaccine, is likely to extend the lifting of the embargo until the summer to prevent an outbreak that gets out of hand.
For a combined variant of the virus to emerge, a person would have to be infected with two strains of coronavirus at the same time – possibly from two different sources – and then the viruses would have to collide with each other in the body.
Dominant variants of the virus are available in most places, so it’s unlikely that someone would be infected with both viruses.
Also, for a healthy person, there may only be a window of about two weeks for the virus to incubate before the body begins to develop immunity, and then the body can successfully clear the first version of the virus.
For most people who develop symptoms of pneumonia in Wuhan, this window of risk can be shortened to a few days before staying Home due to illness.
However, huge, poorly controlled outbreaks like those in the UK and US during the winter can significantly increase the risk of combined viral events simply because of the larger number of people infected.
“We know that this type of thing is a possibility,” Dr. John McCauley, a flu expert at the World health Organization and the Francis Crick Institute in London, told the Daily Mail.
“What we don’t know at this stage is how this affects [the virus’] adaptability – for example, the Kent variant seems to be more adapted [to spread] than its predecessor – or how it is recognized by antibodies after vaccination or infection.”
And Emilia Skirmuntt, an evolutionary virologist at Oxford University, told the Daily Mail, “It could happen, but it’s a bit more complicated than influenza.”
“It would be quite dangerous, and it could change whole parts of the virus’ proteins, which could make the vaccine inefficient. We should be concerned about it, but the coronavirus is not changing at the same level as the flu. It’s possible, but I don’t think it’s very likely.”
The scientists who discovered the variation say it features mutations that could make recombination more likely. One of them, N501Y, is found in the Kent variant, which makes the virus spread faster and therefore increases the risk of infection in people. And another, E484K, weakens immunity gained from previous infections or vaccines, raising the risk that people’s immune systems won’t be able to stop the virus.
According to New Scientist, Bette Korber, PhD, a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico who discovered the mutation, said in a release, “Such events may allow viruses to couple with more infectious viruses together.”
She notes that recombination events occur in a way that multiple mutations suddenly appear at once, and they usually accumulate more slowly.
Coronaviruses are evolving, but usually through a process of faulty mutations that occasionally misread as cells multiply in the body, copying and pasting their genetic code.
Variants of the virus contain dozens of mutations, and thousands have been made since the beginning of the pandemic, but most of them are useless and not a cause for concern.
Mutations that give the virus an advantage, such as the ability to spread faster or evade the immune system, may persist and change the virus permanently.
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