|
 She also said the variant was dominant in the country and was likely
"to sweep the world, in all probability".
The coronavirus has killed 2.35 million people and turned normal
life upside down for billions, but a few new worrying variants out
of thousands have raised fears that vaccines will need to be tweaked
and people may require booster shots.
Sharon Peacock, director of the COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium,
said vaccines were so far effective against the variants in the
United Kingdom, but that mutations could potentially undermine the
shots.
"What's concerning about this is that the 1.1.7. variant that we
have had circulating for some weeks and months is beginning to
mutate again and get new mutations which could affect the way that
we handle the virus in terms of immunity and effectiveness of
vaccines," Peacock told the BBC.
"It's concerning that the 1.1.7., which is more transmissible, which
has swept the country, is now mutating to have this new mutation
that could threaten vaccination."
That new mutation, first identified in Bristol in southwest England,
has been designated a "Variant of Concern", by the New and Emerging
Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group.
There are so far 21 cases of that variant which has E484K mutation,
which occurs on the spike protein of the virus, the same change as
has been seen in the South African and Brazilian variants.
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 "One has to be a realist that
this particular mutation has arisen in our kind
of communal garden lineage now, at least five
times - five separate times. And so this is
going to keep popping up," Peacock said.
There are three major known variants that are worrying scientists:
The South African variant, known by scientists as 20I/501Y.V2 or
B.1.351; the so-called UK or Kent variant, known as 20I/501Y.V1 or
B.1.1.7; and the Brazilian variant known as P.1.
The British variant, which is more infectious but not necessarily
more deadly than others, was likely "to sweep the world", Peacock
said.
"Once we get on top of (the virus) or it mutates itself out of being
virulent - causing disease - then we can stop worrying about it. But
I think, looking in the future, we're going to be doing this for
years. We're still going to be doing this 10 years down the line, in
my view."
The two COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and
AstraZeneca protect against the main British variant.
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Kate Holton and Nick
Macfie)
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