Immunologist Sai Reddy of Zurich Medical School has warned that a more dangerous variant of the coronavirus will appear in the world next year.
The combination of existing variants of SARS-CoV-2 could lead to a new phase of the epidemic with a large number of deaths, Reddy said. Beta from South Africa and Gamma from Brazil have already developed mutations that allow them to partially avoid the antibodies acquired after the disease, said the immunologist.
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In the next phase of the pandemic, the immunologist said, the Beta and Gamma strains would become even more contagious, and Delta would gain the ability to bypass immunity. He called these mutations inevitable. “COVID-22 could be even worse than what we are facing now,” the scientist told Blick.
The expert stressed that the new variant of SARS-CoV-2 must be recognized as early as possible so that vaccine manufacturers can quickly adapt their drugs to fight the infection.
In an interview with the German newspaper, Prof. Reddy said that Delta was the most contagious option of all – what he called “COVID-21”. But he doesn’t have “running mutations,” genetic traits that help him escape the immune system. Running mutations seen in some variants, such as Beta, mean that vaccines become less effective and may need to be changed to protect the population.
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Prof. Reddy said a combination of these factors – more deadly, transmissible or immune-avoiding – would be a problem in the near future. He added: “This is the next phase of the pandemic, when Beta or Gamma become more contagious or Delta develops running mutations. That will be the big problem next year. “
Variants of COVID are expected to appear in the future, as this is a natural part of the evolution of viruses. Whether they will become significant is impossible to predict. But since several have already appeared in less than two years, this does not bode well.
Sage, a member of a group of scientists advising the UK government, said “vaccines do not provide absolute sterilizing immunity”. In a document released on July 30, the group said the likelihood of COVID becoming more deadly was described as “probable” to “realistic” because the virus was still spreading at such a high level worldwide. The document emphasizes the importance of booster campaigns – the first of which may begin in September.
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Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on Saturday that he was “confident” that a booster vaccine campaign could begin next month. However, he said he was waiting for a “final opinion” from JCVI, the vaccine expert group, which advised on how to use them.
Dr Chris Smith, a consultant virologist and professor at the University of Cambridge, said the decision on boosters should not be “hasty”. Speaking to the BBC, Dr Smith explained: “We all agree that the pandemic is not over until it is over in every corner of the world, because otherwise it will simply return. “Remember that we think it started with a few cases in one city, in one corner of a country … and then it darkened the whole world.”
“The immune system and the virus are like two dancers. The immune system seems to move and the virus reacts to its movements. We will dance with him for a long time “, the immunologist Prof. Reddy is categorical.
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