The Washington Post reported that the emergence of the mutant virus could delay the end of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“The emergence of mutations that are more contagious and have the potential to evade vaccines are threatening a prolonged global health disaster,” the Washington Post said.
Studies show that the vaccine is still effective against mutant viruses, but the analysis suggests that additional mutations may be less effective.
Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said, “If there are a couple more mutations, you really have to start worrying.”
Meanwhile, the newspaper reported that epidemiologists agree that in order to form a collective immunity against a more contagious virus, the proportion of people with immunity must be higher.
Until now, when about 70% of the population gets vaccinated or acquired natural immunity, it was estimated that a population immunity that blocks the spread of the virus was formed, but the emergence of mutations raised this criterion.
Jay Butler, deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says that when more contagious mutations become dominant, the criteria for collective immunity rise to 80-85 percent.
Collins explained that the best scenario is when people get the vaccine as soon as possible, reach a high rate of vaccination, and no other variants that are resistant to the vaccine appear.
On the other hand, in the worst case, people continue to remain irresponsible, warning that highly contagious mutations sweep across the United States, and vaccines and treatments and natural immunity may both fail to work.
In those cases, Dr Collins said, “the whole new vaccine will have to be redesigned from scratch.”
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