Scientists do not know, but they fear that a new mutation of the coronavirus may be occurring in China, similar to what happened with the Omicron variant, the AP agency reported this Sunday.
It could be a combination of variants or something completely different, say experts quoted by the US news agency.
“China has a very large population and immunity is limited. And that seems to be the reason why we could see an explosion of a new variant,” said Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University.
Each new infection offers the chance for the coronavirus to mutate, and the virus is spreading rapidly in China.
The country of 1.4 billion inhabitants and abandoned the “zero covid” policy. Although reported vaccination rates are high, booster levels are lower, especially among older people.
Domestic vaccines have been shown to be less effective against serious infections than Western mRNA versions. Many were administered more than a year ago, which means immunity has waned.
The result is fertile ground for the virus to change.
“When we have large waves of infection, they are usually followed by new variants,” Ray said.
Three years ago, the original version of the coronavirus spread from China to the rest of the world and was likely replaced by the Delta variant, then Omicron and its descendants, which continue to plague the world today.
Shan-Lu Liu, who studies viruses at Ohio State University, said many existing Omicron variants have been detected in China, including BF.7, which is extremely adept at evading immunity and is believed to be leading the outbreak. current.
Experts believe that a partially immune population like China’s puts particular pressure on the virus to mutate.
Ray likened the virus to a boxer learning to avoid an opponent’s techniques and adapting to work around them.
A big uncertainty is when a new variant will cause more severe disease. Experts say there is no inherent reason why the virus should become milder over time.
“Much of the slowdown we’ve experienced in the last 12 months in many parts of the world was due to immunity built up through vaccination or infection, not because the virus has changed” in severity, Ray defended.
In China, most people have never been exposed to the coronavirus. China’s vaccines are based on older technology that produces fewer antibodies than mRNA vaccines.
Given these realities, Gagandeep Kang, who studies viruses at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, said that it is still unknown if the virus will follow the same pattern of evolution in China as in the rest of the world after the application of vaccines. .
Recently, the World Health Organization has expressed concern about reports of serious illness in China.
Source: TSF
