If I fly from Bucharest airport to any available airport in the UK, it takes about 4 hours. Every 4 hours, 2 new mutations are born among Sars-cov-2. If I go to the UK and come back to Bucharest, we have 4 new mutations born amond Sars-cov-2. There have already been 4,000 mutations of Sars-cov-2, but these are detected in spike glycoprotein alone. Including all the parts of the virus’s gene, there must be astronomic numbers of mutations already.
VUI–202012/01 is the latest strain prevailing in the UK. Humans have barely made a wikipedia page but the virus is way ahead of us. According to the UK government, it’s 70% more infectious than other variants of the virus. Reportedly this variant from the UK has made a significant update in the spike glycoprotein’s receptor-binding domain (RBD), which binds to the human and murine ACE2 receptor. The RBD works like an arm to catch a human’s ACE2 receptor. These are the parts to make the virus look like a crown. The more flexible the arms get evolved to be, the more easily they catch a human’s ACE2 receptor. This new variant was discovered in September, but humans have not done anything against it until last night. Yesterday some European countries including Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Austria decided to halt the flights from the UK. However the new variant has already been detected in the continent. I majored in business, but in business, when two types of technical standards compete to become the dominant standard in the market, such as Blu-ray and HD DVD or internet browsers, the first one which gained more than 3% market share is destined to be the dominant type. Now this is about the virus but probably VUI–202012/01 will be the next dominant type.
From BBC to Reuters, the media protocol when to cover this new strain is to comment that there is no evidence that this new strain has more severity than other variants, and also probably the currently tested vaccines would still work on this variant. Media also adds that Sars-cov-2 is mutating slower than the flu. However this means Covid-19 would take longer than the flu to be adapted to humans and become milder, so this is not necessarily good news.
Humans thought they finally obtained the weapon to the virus called vaccines, but it looks like the virus was just ahead of the curve. The UK and the US started testing Pfizer’s vaccine on medical workers last Monday. As a result, at least 3,150 medical workers had adverse reactions by Friday, which is defined to be unable to perform normal daily activities, unable to work, required care from doctors and medical professionals. This is about 2.8% frequency including 6 anaphylaxis cases. The rate rose up to 4% by Saturday but I’m waiting for the solid source. Now every country is suffering the shortage of medical workers, but for some reason we started testing the unconfirmed vaccines on them and losing more workers. In the meantime, at least 84 mutations were born among Sars-cov-2. The day before CDC announced 3,150 medical workers had adverse reactions from Pfizer’s vaccine, CNBC reported that Pfizer and Moderna completely immunised themselves against a lawsuit related to the severe vaccine side effects in the US. The US government has also compensated for only 29 side effects claims over the last decade. Either way, because this is only for emergency use of the vaccine, American citizens cannot sue FDA (the Food and Drug Administration). These vaccine makers acted as swiftly as the virus. Already in February, these companies had the law to empower HHS (Health and Human Services Secretary) to provide legal protection making distributing critical medical supplies, such as vaccines and treatments, unless there’s “willful misconduct” by the company. The protection lasts until 2024. By such a legal immunity, these companies cannot be sued for money damages in court over injuries for the next four years. By this week, the CEO of Pfizer hasn’t had the vaccine of his own company. The CEO comments that he can’t cut in line to be vaccinated. Actually, hospital pharmacists have to throw away at least one dosage amount in every vial because each one of them contains an extra amount for some reason.
A new mutation rises every 2 hours, however every one of them seems very vulnerable against the sunlight. Also, the transmission rate is significantly low in the open space. These facts prove the origin of the virus was bat or other nocturnal animals living in a dark closed place as a group. It has been over a year, but still we know little about the origin of the virus, which would help us fight the disease the most.
