London – British scientists say the rapidly spreading variant COVID-19 first discovered in southern England is evolving in a way that could make life vaccines less effective against him. The United Kingdom has been eyeing mutations in the coronavirus for months, leading the world in tracking changes in the virus’s genetic code.
English authorities are trying to test everyone over 16 in many neighborhoods, where some cases of another disturbing variant have been found – the first detected in South Africa. But even as Britain was running to find and stop this strain highly infectious, scientists found that the UK variant appeared to be mutating in a way that mimics the South African.
The discovery raised concerns about the continuing evolution of the virus, which some evidence suggests can lead to vaccine resistance being launched worldwide.
“The virus, over time, is improving itself,” said Sharon Peacock, who leads a national network of British scientists who are watching the transformations more closely than anywhere else in the world, told CBS News correspondent Roxana I know.
For the coronavirus, Peacock says, “it’s a matter of natural selection. It’s the survival of the fittest.”
She told CBS News that her team at COVID-19 Genomics UK hunts every day in Britain’s laboratories for any new mutations, which “really gives us a barcode for the virus.”
This hunt depends on robots and human researchers examining thousands of samples of COVID-19, mapping mutations in the virus’s genetic code.
In November, they noticed something alarming: mutations, many in the peak virus protein, that allowed it to stick to cells more strongly, making it much more contagious.
While 10 people infected with the old variants of the virus could transmit it to 13 others, 10 people with the new variant discovered in Kent, south-east London, could infect around 20.
“This is very important,” says Peacock, “because more people can get sick and therefore more people are likely to die simply because of the burden of the disease.”
Quickly dubbed the “United Kingdom variant”, the new strain since then swept the world, leading the United States and many other nations to restrict their travel. Germany and Austria now mandate that anyone who ventures into public places wear medical masks, not just facial tissue covers, and the UK has imposed a third national blockade.
UK scientists say that as COVID-19 continues to mutate, the rest of the world also needs to do more genetic sequencing – and The US has to catch up. At the moment, less than 1% of coronavirus samples in the US are being sequenced, compared to about 10% in the UK, which means that many dangerous mutations can go undetected.
Peacock says it is “very likely” that variants of COVID-19 in the US will be more widespread than those currently known, “and I think sequencing will be vital to spot this.”
Ravi Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, told CBS News that the vaccines are likely to need to be reformulated by the end of this year to adapt to new mutations. A senior researcher at pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca said on Wednesday that the work would be done “as soon as possible”.
“We are working hard and we are already talking not only about the variants that we have to do in the laboratories, but also about the clinical studies that we need to carry out,” said Mene Pangalos during a press conference. “Our goal is to try to have something ready by autumn, then this year.”