People who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 are not only putting their own health at risk but are “variant factories,” an infectious disease expert told CNN. “Unvaccinated people are potential variant factories,” William Schaffner, professor in the infectious diseases unit at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, United States, told CNN. “The more people there are unvaccinated, the more possibilities the virus has to multiply,” he added.
The variants evolve in the body of a person infected with the coronavirus. “When it does, the virus mutates, which can lead to an even more serious mutation later,” said William Schaffner.
Read also – Delta variant: this is what the symptoms look like
Viruses, including the coronavirus responsible for Covid-19, mutate, and while some mutations can harm the virus, others can help it. For example, a mutation can help a virus to be more transmissible. When the virus spreads to another person, the mutation replicates and spreads as well, and if it is successful and continues to spread, it becomes a variant.
Unvaccinated people provide an opportunity for the mutation to continue to replicate, CNN reports. “As mutations appear in viruses, the ones that persist are those that facilitate the spread of the virus in the population,” Andrew Pekosz, microbiologist and immunologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told CNN. . “Every time the virus changes, it has a different platform to add more mutations. We now have viruses that spread more efficiently.”
If a virus can’t spread, it can’t mutate
There are already several variants of the coronavirus, four of which are called “variants of concern” by the world health organization. These four variants, Alpha, first discovered in the UK, Beta, first discovered in South Africa, Gamma, first discovered in Brazil, and Delta, first discovered in India, present risks because they are more transmissible, cause more serious disease, or may escape immune protection.
These variants were also discovered at a time when infection cases were high. Specifically, public health experts are already concerned about the risks posed by the Delta variant, even for people who have already been vaccinated. While the vaccines have been shown to be effective against the variants, they may not be so effective against some in particular. For example, two doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been shown to be 88% effective in preventing symptomatic cases of Covid-19 of the Delta variant.
In the United States, however, experts fear the variant could spread and cause an upsurge in cases, especially in communities with low vaccination rates. The fewer people who are vaccinated, the more likely it is for the virus to pass from person to person.
“Currently, about 1,000 counties in the United States have vaccine coverage below 30%. These communities, primarily in the Southeast and Midwest, are the most vulnerable. In some of these areas, we are already seeing an increase in vaccine coverage. rate of disease, “warned Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control, ndlt), during a briefing at the White House Thursday July 1. “As the Delta variant continues to spread across the country, we expect to see increased transmission in these communities unless we can vaccinate more people now.” Experts are urging more Americans to get vaccinated to stop the spread.
Original version : Sarah Al-Arshani/Insider
Read also – Twelve symptoms of Covid that take a long time to discuss with your doctor, between fatigue and shortness of breath
–
