With vaccination now well under way in the United Kingdom (January 2020) it is no surprise that watching out for new mutations of the SARS – Cov 2 virus has been critical. To the credit of the UK Government they have insured the different organisations with expertise in this area have been drawn together and that suitable financing has been agreed to support this important tracking.
The so called “Kent" variant labelled B.1.17 has through its
higher transmission rates become a major problem in London and the South East. It
includes what was named the N501Y mutation. The virus had continued to
propagate at a high rate in these areas whilst the Government rules on lock
down remained the same as other areas in the country where propagation was less
virulent. Importantly the effective roll out of the testing for the virus has
been able to support the provision of excellent localised transmission statistics.
This allowing for the genetic surveillance of the virus from area to area
within the United Kingdom. This need for surveillance is just as critical
internationally with oddly enough South Africa because of its experience with
ebola a leading proponent.
So not surprisingly along came the “South African" which also had the N501Y mutation which appears to have developed independently
from the Kent variant. But South African variant in addition had another
mutation named E484K. Now with the vaccination protecting you by getting in the
way of the spike binding with your cells any change in the spike itself has to
be a concern. Your immunity depends upon the vaccination generating your
anti-bodies and T cells so they interfere or prevent this binding process.
Essentially they lower the effectiveness of the spike gaining entry into a
human cell.
To get a perspective on the proportions of these viral
activities some mathematician has said all the coronaviruses currently
infecting the whole world could fit on one teaspoon. I am not sure I can
believe this fact nor if it is true can I mentally comprehend it. But what it
does do is give you an appreciation of the relative size of the virus.
So we now have a worrying “Brazilian" with both the
N501Y and E484K mutations with investigations in progress (15th
January 2021) to determine any other differences. Tracking the RNA structure of
these viruses is critical as is seeing how humans react to them in terms of the
infection. It is possible that the vaccines may need to be modified and they
would need to be applied in a second round of vaccination.
1st February 2021
It is no surprise to hear the "South African" variant has shown up in some more cases in the UK where those with it appear not to have any links to travellers from South Africa. All credit to the UK Government in establishing the COG-19 Genomics (COG-UK) Consortium to deliver rapid whole genome virus sequencing. This is a totally non political blog but you do have to wonder whether some of these "fast scientific and commercial moves" by the UK Government in respect of setting up consortium and the establishing of very early vaccine contracts are down to the new freedoms we are experiencing outside of the EEC where they are showing a decided lack of innovation.
It now has a World War 2 feel about it with a very British approach to fighting a war where creativity and innovation are backed by the UK Government. It also proves the power of having a National Health Service (NHS) with dedicated health and research professionals as the central controlling (umbrella) organisation. But most importantly one very focussed upon operating on consortium principles bringing together Universities, Agencies and other Research Institutes. The very British capability of empowering the academic world (the thinkers), the researchers (the creators) alongside the commercial world (the makers )makes for a very powerful entity. What is missing is a more powerful representation of the Information Technology industry. Where are the UK equivalents to Google and Microsoft who of the tech giants are the most "outside of the box" organisations. This is what the UK Government needs to fund next because the virus has now just been desynthesised down to computer code requiring digital technology investments to complete a major part of the fight back against the virus.
Read the BBC Report have
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55534727
Look at the this COG Consortium
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