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(AP) – The race against the virus that causes COVID-19 has taken a new turn: Mutations are rapidly popping up, and the longer it takes to vaccinate people, the more likely it is that a variant that can elude current tests, treatments and vaccines could emerge.
The coronavirus is becoming more genetically diverse, and health officials say the high rate of new cases is the main reason. Each new infection gives the virus a chance to mutate as it makes copies of itself, threatening to undo the progress made so far to control the pandemic.
Family Physician and CEO of Kind Health Group, Dr. Georgine Nanos, joined Good Morning San Diego to discuss the COVID-19 variant.
Which SARS-CoV-2 mutations can potentially evade antibody recognition?
To date, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has spread to 191 countries and infected more than 95.62 million people. Of these, more than 2 million people have lost their lives. The United States remains the nation with the highest number of cases, reaching 24 million, while India and Brazil follow, with over 10.58 million and 8.51 million cases, respectively.
New strains of the virus have begun to emerge with increased infectivity – including the VUI 202012/01 in Britain and 501.V2 in South Africa. This has led to concerns among public health authorities that mutant strains may evade neutralizing antibodies produced by convalescent individuals as well as the present vaccine candidates.