The World Health Organization is urging the global community not to panic about new coronavirus variant discovered in the United Kingdom. There is a good chance that it will respond to vaccines, and transmission is not yet out of control, experts say.
“The [mitigation] measures we currently have in place are the correct measures,” said WHO’s emergencies leader, Michael Ryan at a Monday press conference.”We need to do what we have been doing, we may just have to do it with a little more intensity and for a little longer to make sure we can bring this virus under control.”
Public health officials detected the new variant as it began spreading in certain areas of Britain, apparently at a fast rate. Modeling studies suggest that the new variant is up to 70% more transmissible than earlier versions. In South Africa, a similar variant has spread to the point that it is detectable in 90% of samples analyzed, according to the New York Times. But scientists are calling for tempered concerns while they review more data.
“Scientifically, to date, no hard evidence exists that this virus is actually more transmissible,” said Moncef Slaoui, chief scientific adviser for U.S. government’s Operation Warp Speed, in a Monday press conference. “There is clear evidence, however, that there is more of it in the population.”
It’s uncertain what accounts for the new variant’s sudden widespread appearance. It may simply be due to human behavior, or better tracking methods, experts said. And at this point, bigger outbreaks than the current one in Britain have been successfully reigned in, according to the WHO’s Ryan.
“[T]his situation is not in that sense out of control. But it cannot be left to its own devices,” he said.
No evidence exists, at least yet, that the virus is more deadly, or that the newly approved vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna won’t work against it, Slaoui said. Viruses mutations are a normal occurrence, and typically take years, not months, to become untouchable by a vaccine.
The National Institutes of Health and British researchers currently are investigating how new variants hold up against coronavirus vaccines and monoclonal antibody treatments in the lab. “The expected outcome” is that the current vaccines will be able to neutralize the virus, Slaoui said.
“It’s a real warning that we need to pay closer attention,” Jesse Bloom, Ph.D., an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle told the New York Times. “Certainly these mutations are going to spread, and, definitely, the scientific community — we need to monitor these mutations and we need to characterize which ones have effects,” he added.
Meanwhile, nearly 30 countries have shut their borders to the UK and South Africa, Agence France-Presse reported.
