What's happening with the new 'mutation'?
Morning Bridget. Sorry if this is a dumb question but, if the covid virus is , or does mutate, as has been found in the UK, wouldn't current vaccines be ineffective?-Natty
Morning, Natty — not a stupid question at all.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly was asked about this yesterday.
He made the point that there have been "thousands" of mutations along the way. However, the particular strain that is circulating in the UK "does have some particular mutations related to the spike protein".
"That is important because it is the way the virus gets into the cells and also the particular part of the virus that the vaccines are attacking, all the vaccines are related to the spike protein," he said.
"Having said that, there is no definite evidence at the moment that this is a significant change. There has been more transmission in recent times in south-east of the UK and that may be associated with the virus."
Professor Kelly added the increase in transmission may also come down to the fact that 1. it's almost Christmas time (so there's more people mingling) and 2. it's currently winter in the UK.
"As with every infectious disease, there are three things going on. There is an environment, a host, that is humans and the infectious agent," he said.
"So the infectious agent has changed a little, there a lot of people moving around in south-east England or have been until the recent lockdown. It is also winter, so those all three are important elements to consider.
"In terms of what that means for people coming from the UK here, everyone coming from the UK is going into 14 days of hotel quarantine and they are of no risk as that quarantine works so successfully, as it has done for the most part here in Australia since the beginning."
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiamh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmFiYy5uZXQuYXUvbmV3cy8yMDIwLTEyLTIyL2Nvcm9uYXZpcnVzLWF1c3RyYWxpYS1saXZlLW5ld3MtY292aWQtMTktbGF0ZXN0LW5zdy1ib3JkZXIvMTMwMDUyNDDSASdodHRwczovL2FtcC5hYmMubmV0LmF1L2FydGljbGUvMTMwMDUyNDA?oc=5
2020-12-21 20:02:00Z
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