Almost a year after the pandemic began, Covid-19 is spreading at record rates in the United States, and with it, new variants of the virus are emerging. Last week, researchers in Ohio said they had identified two unique variants in Columbus.
Experts agree that it is not surprising that new variants have emerged in the United States, but emphasize that the uncontrolled transmission of the virus in the country offers ample opportunities for mutation. The best way, therefore, to suppress new variants is to stop the spread, they say.
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“The only way to [stop emergence of new variants] is to prevent the spread of the virus, ”said Ben Bimber, a research professor at Oregon Health and Science University.
If there are more people infected, there will simply be more viruses out there and there will be more opportunities to mutate.
“Each time the virus replicates, it is an opportunity to mutate,” he said. “If there are more people infected, there will simply be more viruses out there and there will be more opportunities to mutate.”
When the coronavirus infects an individual, it enters cells and makes copies of itself. “Every time the virus copies itself, there is a chance of introducing errors,” said Bimber. “If the virus is replicating in people, it will slowly build up mutations.”
Often, these errors or mutations are meaningless. But in some cases, they can give the virus a survival advantage – making it more contagious, for example, or more resistant to treatments or vaccines. On the other hand, some mutations can make the virus weaker.
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It is unclear how the two variants recently identified in Ohio will affect the virus’s behavior.
Findings about these variants were posted last Friday on the online prepress server BioRxiv, which means they have not yet been peer-reviewed. In the study, the researchers analyzed the genetic sequences of more than 220 coronavirus samples obtained in the Columbus area from April 2020 to early January 2021.
One of the variants identified in Ohio contains a mutation in the virus spike protein called N501Y – the same mutation found in the UK’s most contagious variant, as well as the South African variant, Dr. Dan Jones, vice president of the molecular pathology division at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said during the press conference last Wednesday. The variant did not come from someone outside; instead, by analyzing other small changes in the variant’s genetic code, the researchers were able to determine that it emerged independently in the United States
William Hanage, associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health TH Chan, said he was not surprised by the detection of new variants, especially the one with the N501Y mutation, “because it has happened so many times. ”In addition to emerging in the UK and South Africa, this specific mutation has also been detected in Brazil.
The other variant contained a combination of three mutations that had not been seen together before, the researchers said. While the N501Y mutation was found in only one sample, this variant, with three mutations, quickly became prevalent in the samples that the researchers tested in December and January.
Jones told NBC News that vaccination is the key to stopping the spread of variants, as well as reducing the chances of new variants emerging.
“The bigger your pool is [susceptible] patients, the greater the chance that a mutation will survive and emerge, ”he said. “It has to pass from person to person, so if you are not getting a lot of infection in the population [because of vaccination], then even an important mutation can simply disappear, because the person who was infected does not transmit the virus to anyone else. “
Even “having a perfect fit, the pathogenic change in the virus does no good if it continues to find a wall of vaccinated people,” added Jones.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said they were “aware” of the Ohio variants and issued the same statement on January 8, after a controversial report by the White House Coronavirus Task Force that speculated that a US variant might be driving the recent increase in cases in the country.
That statement said that while “it is highly likely that there are many variants evolving simultaneously across the world,” the CDC “did not see the emergence of a particular variant in the United States as it was seen with the emergence of B.1.1.7 in the United Kingdom. Kingdom or B.1.351 in South Africa. ”
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However, the statement noted that “there is a strong possibility that there are variants in the United States; however, it can take weeks or months to identify whether there is a single variant of the virus that causes Covid-19, fueling the increase in the United States similar to the increase in the United Kingdom. “
New variants are expected and not all are of concern, said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center for Global Health and Safety at Georgetown University.
“We must be concerned when a variant is accompanied by epidemiological evidence such as that seen in the United Kingdom” – she said, referring to the increase in cases seen as that country’s variant became more widespread – “or if there is a significant association with the increased severity of the disease. “
But “regardless of emerging variants, we must emphasize reducing transmission of all variants,” said Rasmussen. This means wearing a mask, avoiding crowds and practicing good hand hygiene.
Bimber agreed that it was too early to draw any conclusions about the variants detected in Ohio.
“This is a really fast moving space and it takes time to really assess the effects of these” new variants, he said. “This will not be the last and there will definitely be new variants in the virus as it infects more individuals.”
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