Virus World

Many virology terms are being used these days by people who do not understand their meaning. Included are journalists, medical doctors, scientists, lawyers, and people from all walks of life. In normal times this word mis-usage would be so rare that it would not matter. However, because we are in a viral pandemic that affects nearly everyone, I will attempt to explain the meaning of virus isolates, variants, and strains.

The new strain may be growing faster in some parts of the country, Health Secretary tells MPs. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said at least 60 different local authorities had recorded Covid infections caused by the new variant. He said the World Health Organization had been notified and UK scientists were doing detailed studies. He said there was "nothing to suggest" it caused worse disease or that vaccines would no longer work. He told MPs in the House of Commons that over the last week, there had been sharp, exponential rises in coronavirus infections across London, Kent, parts of Essex and Hertfordshire. "We've currently identified over 1,000 cases with this variant predominantly in the South of England although cases have been identified in nearly 60 different local authority areas. "We do not know the extent to which this is because of the new variant but no matter its cause we have to take swift and decisive action which unfortunately is absolutely essential to control this deadly disease while the vaccine is rolled out." 

So far, there's no evidence to suggest the new strain causes more severe disease or affects Covid treatments and vaccines, England's top medical officer said. U.K. health officials raised the alarm about a variant of the coronavirus that’s spreading quickly across London and southeast England. The variant of Covid-19 has almost two dozen mutations that may affect proteins made by the coronavirus, Patrick Vallance, the U.K.’s chief scientific adviser, said Saturday. It’s rapidly becoming the dominant strain in the capital and the southeast, he said. Scientists have found mutations in areas of the genome “that are known to be associated with how the virus binds to cells and enters cells,” Vallance said in a press briefing alongside Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The changes “cause concern in terms of how the virus looks.” Johnson said there’s no evidence that the variant is more lethal or causes more severe illness than the earlier strains, nor are there indications it will be less susceptible to Covid-19 vaccines that are being rolled out, though the data is still under review. 

Yet it does appear to be as much as 70% more transmissible, and could increase the R value, the number of people infected by a person with the virus, by 0.4, Johnson said.

Curbing Transmission

Viruses are typically genetically unstable, and their constant mutations give them opportunities to infect new organisms, as the coronavirus did last year when it likely jumped from animals to humans. Scientists expressed concern that the increasing spread of the pathogen, which has already infected more than 75 million people worldwide, may give it the chance to change into a more lethal form. “We have to reduce transmission to prevent hospitalisations & deaths,” Jeremy Farrar, an infectious disease specialist and director of Wellcome, the U.K. research foundation, said on Twitter. “We also have to reduce transmission to reduce opportunity for virus to evolve & escape control.” Changes in viruses have the potential to lead in different directions, curbing transmission and virulence but also possibly moving in a more severe direction, he wrote. It’s too early to know if it’s becoming more dangerous, he added. While many aspects of the pandemic have been predictable since the start of the year, “we may be entering a less predictable phase.” Johnson initiated a new round of restrictions on Saturday as the U.K. reported 27,052 new cases, bringing the total to more than 2 million. The country reached 1 million cases on Oct. 31. The prime minister imposed a lockdown on London and large parts of southeast England. He canceled plans to ease pandemic restrictions for five days over the holidays, and banned household mixing in London and the southeast while restricting socializing to just Christmas Day across the rest of England....