Page 25 - Genetic Code News Today

With me isjonathan ball, professor of virology at the university of nottingham, and paul hunter, professor of medicine at the university of east anglia. thank you both not only for doing this but also being willing to put your knowledge against the questions as it were. lets kick straight off all across omicron and the impact of it. paul, claire asked do the current lateral flow tests pick up the new omicron variant? it appears that they d0- — the new omicron variant? it appears that they do. ...

Looking at the genetic code that can give greater transmissibility, the ability for one person to pass it on much more easily to others. however, this is all observational and so the next two weeks what were likely to see, you know, weve raised a specter of concern. the next two weeks youll see laboratory data looking to see if it basis the way we expect it to based on its mutations and also to get a better sense of how it appears in patients. we dont currently know anything about the disease it...

Genetic code and the observations from south africa. thats why the w.h.o. has called it concerning because it combines the genetic code that reduces vaccine effectiveness and treatment effectiveness, but also greater transmissibility. >> when you hear that some of these pharmaceutical companies are saying we may have to amend our vaccine somewhat to account for omicron. there are a lot of people who got their vaccine but thaw now in the booster phase. should they wait to get the boosters? >> abs...

You really need to see a huge population have that same variant and get a better sense of how its distributed. i think the limited observation doesnt say a lot. the concern for the medical community is if you see potentially based on genetic code and its how it behaves in patients and a laboratory. the concern would be that some of the medical treatments we have such as monoclonal antibodies work. >> were going to look to what weve already gone through with covid. you have researchers saying omi...

See a huge surge. looking at the genetic code, a worry that this has a lot of mutations we have seen in other variants that can give greater transmissibility where people can pass it on more easily to one another. and then there is the vaccine effectiveness and monoclonal variant. we can also get a better sense of how it appears in the patient. we dont know more than the delta or initial strength we have been dealing with. >> the travel ban has been imposed on south africa cant

Hejoins us now. good evening to you. hello. just going back to what we heard this evening and the prime ministers justifications for these restrictions, he says he is buying time, he wants to slow the spread of the variant until we learn more about it. ., ., ., ., about it. could he have done more? i dont thinkthis _ about it. could he have done more? i dont think this is _ about it. could he have done more? i dont think this is an _ about it. could he have done more? i dont think this is an unr...

I dont think this is an unreasonable suite of measures and i dont think the timing is at all unreasonable, we only learned about this in about the past 48 hours. time is everything, it does matter, because at the moment we know virtually nothing about this new virus. we have got a suite of symptoms that people have documented from south africa that sound encouraging, doctors dare say it does not seem to produce severe disease and that is a tick in the right box. we have got a genetic code and wh...

Coronavirus like delta, which is why you are seeing the stories of this mutation and this change and we have seen this before and this one we have not. what has got people worried is if you look at where these genetic changes are, they localise in the genetic code with the pace that it uses to make the outer coat of the virus and specifically the spike on the outer coat and that is what it uses to infect ourselves. it is also what we use to make the vaccinations that then make us immune to coron...

Vaccine-generated immunity, is one of the degrees. its not like turning a light switch on and off. if we have a vaccine thats currently 90% effective, you know, with the new variant that could decrease by any sort of measure. its very likely that will there will still be some protection, as you say, you know, the really tremendous thing about our vaccines is theyre very strong protection against severe illness and death. theres certainly no evidence so far that this new variant causes more sever...

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