Toronto, April 11: Potentially more deadly variants have been reported across Canada to date of which more than 90 percent of them being the B117 variant first identified in the United Kingdom. Similarly, P1 variant first discovered in Brazil is also on the rise in Canada, with cases doubling in the past weeks to nearly 1,000 in British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta as well as B1351 variant first found in South Africa is also picking up with over 150 cases identified in Quebec, more than 70 in Ontario and over 50 in British Columbia. But, experts say Canada’s slow vaccine rollout has failed to keep up with the exponential rise in variants in the third wave and the premature loosening of restrictions has led to an increase in hospitalizations and deaths, even in younger Canadians.
For such, Canada’s research chair of emerging viruses and assistant professor of viral pathogenesis at the University of Manitoba, Jason Kindrachuk said, “We have a lot of virus moving around the country and escalating very, very quickly. Vaccinations are certainly starting to pick up, but we’re nowhere near where we need to be to get this thing under control.”
So, in a giant experiment on the world stage, the significant outbreaks of three different variants in Canada are occurring at the same time without even we know much about a new “double mutant” variant of the corona virus has been detected from samples collected in India in last March and already reached to California, USA. Luckily these vast majority of mutations are inconsequential and don’t alter the way the virus behaves. Although some mutations can trigger changes in the spike protein that the virus uses to latch on to and enter human cells and these variants could potentially be more infectious, cause more severe disease or evade vaccines.
Indian reports said that, the genome scientists have detected this kind of “double variant” of the novel corona virus. Its government said that an analysis of the samples collected from the western state of Maharashtra showed “an increase in the fraction of samples with the E484Q and L452R mutations” compared with December last year. Its health ministry said, “Such [double] mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity.”
Now, how worried should we be about the new variant? Scientists have shown mutations in the spike gene can make the virus inherently “better” at infecting people or can help the virus to escape neutralizing antibodies. Thus, vaccines against respiratory pathogens like SARS-Cov2, the virus that causes Covid-19, protect us by stimulating our bodies to make antibodies. The best type to protect us is the “neutralizing antibodies” because they block the virus from being able to enter the human cells.
