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The delta variant is expanding rapidly, even in countries with high vaccination rates.
The number of coronavirus cases in Britain has risen rapidly in recent days. Of these infections, 95% of the registered cases are attributable to the Delta variant. Two thirds of the British population are already vaccinated. That is why doubts are spreading on social networks: is the delta variant spreading due to vaccination? Can vaccines give rise to new mutations? DW verified the facts.
How do virus mutations occur?
To reproduce, viruses introduce their genetic information into a host cell. Every time a virus reproduces, small copy errors occur, and each of those errors also changes the genetic code of the virus, so it is constantly mutating, something completely normal. Sometimes these mutations make the virus more effective and sometimes less. Or they have no effect, so the strongest variant survives.
Do vaccines cause viral mutations?
Those vaccinated are not those that have caused new mutations and variants, but those that have not yet been vaccinated, virologist Friedemann Weber, from Justus Liebig University, Giessen, told DW. However, experts affirm that, in theory, it is possible that vaccines exert an immunological pressure on the virus, which would cause it to “try to escape from that pressure by mutating,” added Georg Behrens, professor of the Department. of Rheumatology and Immunology at the Hannover Faculty of Medicine.
The chances of contagion occur only in partially vaccinated populations. As a result, some people are immunized, while others are still exposed. “That is what the virus likes. This is how it unfolds, ”Behrens added.
If vaccines massively increased the likelihood that a virus would mutate, then new virus variations would appear in Israel or the United Kingdom, where many people are vaccinated, explained Peggy Riese, a scientist at the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research.
“The mutations of the virus are occurring precisely in those countries where there is not yet a high rate of vaccinated, and in which people are crowding, and many are not vaccinated, or are only partially vaccinated,” he explained to DW
Did the vaccines cause the delta variant?
In isolated cases, vaccines can cause mutations and also promote their spread. However, it is highly unlikely that the delta variant, which was discovered in October 2020 in the Indian state of Maharashtra, was caused by vaccines. It wasn’t until January 2021 that the first person in India was vaccinated.
What are the chances of even more dangerous mutations?
Mutations arise by chance: “New variants will probably keep appearing for quite a long time,” Weber said. Only when the majority of the population has been vaccinated will new mutations stop emerging.
The scientist Behrens, meanwhile, also said that it cannot be predicted whether there will be even more dangerous variants. There are always less dangerous mutations that are not imposed. The best protection is vaccination, and the more people are vaccinated, the greater the immunity and the lower the incidence of infection.
What does the delta variant do?
The exact functions of the variant have yet to be scientifically investigated. However, what is known so far is that mutations allow the virus to more easily bind to human cells and evade some immune reactions, says DW Deepti Gurdasani, a clinical epidemiologist at Queen Mary University of London, England. The delta variant has several mutations.
Scientists Riese and Weber also say that the delta variant has so far been found to have a higher viral load and that it is usually located in the throat. (I)
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