In recent months, the Delta variant has been linked to a resurgence of COVID infections
and is on track to become the dominant variant worldwide…
putting many countries, health officials, and medical experts on high alert.
There's been a lot of potential variants of concern that have sprouted up around the world.
And a lot of this is due to the fact that viruses mutate, that's what they do.
But the big question is: Are these mutations resulting in the virus being more problematic?
By now, you’ve probably heard about the Delta variant, but for the sake of getting us all on the same page, a little recap:
The COVID pandemic is caused by a virus called SARS-CoV-2, which is constantly changing as it replicates and spreads.
These changes, or mutations, in the virus’s genetic code result in new variants of the virus.
Most of these have been found to either be weaker or benign versions of the original strain,
meaning that the mutations didn’t cause the virus to be more harmful in any way,
but a handful of variants carry mutations that are associated with increased transmissibility and more severe cases.
And those are the variants that experts are keeping close tabs on.
So far, four of these have been identified as “variants of concern” by the World Health Organization: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta,
which is the most recent addition to the list.
Together, these variants are shown to be either more contagious, more deadly, or more resistant to current treatments.
But of the four, Delta is especially concerning.
According to the WHO, it’s the “fastest and fittest” variant yet.
Recent work out of Imperial College London suggests that it’s actually up to 60% more transmissible than the Alpha variant
—which was already 50% more transmissible than the original strain—
and many scientists expect Delta will soon replace Alpha as the dominant variant worldwide.
We’re already feeling the effects, particularly with rates of infection steadily rising amongst unvaccinated populations.
Delta is also sometimes referred to as the “double mutant.
This somewhat sinister moniker is based on the fact that two important mutations can be found in the variant’s spike protein.
That’s the protein on the virus’s surface that allows it to gain entry into our cells.
But there are these 11 other mutations, and we are systematically studying these mutations in isolation to try to get a better handle of...
are these other mutations playing a role? And what role are they playing in terms of increased transmissibility that we're seeng with this Delta variant?
Fortunately, past work by Dr. Krogan’s team to study other variants is helping them better understand the mutations in Delta.
For the last year and a half, we've been...looking at how the host responds to the virus.
With respect to the Delta variant, compared to the other variants, there's about the same number of mutations, but they're more spread out in the genome.
In that way, maybe ultimately, more human proteins in our cells are being manipulated in adverse ways compared to earlier lineage viruses.
That's one hypothesis. But at the end of the day, we have to wait to see what the data looks like, and then go from there.
Questions abound, including whether the Delta variant impacts our health in different ways.
There’s been talk of it showing slightly different symptoms—ones typically associated with the common cold: runny nose, sore throat, headache...
but there’s not enough data to confirm this just yet.
As we wait for answers, the global pandemic response is on track to remain fundamentally the same: use all the available tools to combat the outbreak,
which includes completing your vaccine course.
That is, if it’s available to you—in some countries, there are still no vaccines available at all.
If you don't have the knowledge, then fear comes. So at the present time, I think you have to take a deep breath,
use the preventative measures we have in place, i.e. the vaccinations, and support the scientists doing the work and wait for the scientists to collect the data,
so that we can be in a better mindset going forward as new variants come along.
It’s important to keep in mind that vaccines such as the ones developed by Moderna and Pfizer remain extremely effective
against severe disease caused by SARS-CoV-2— variants and all.
And early results investigating their protection against the Delta variant specifically are encouraging:
One UK study found Pfizer to be 88% effective against symptomatic disease caused by the Delta variant,
while Moderna also found a “modest reduction” in neutralizing antibodies when their vaccine confronted the variant.
These variants are providing us with a very valuable lesson and right now the lesson is to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.
While the coronavirus is a stand-out virus in many ways, it follows many of the same habits of other viruses.
Namely, that it mutates.
We've covered mutation on the channel before, so if you want to dive into the science of how that (very natural, normal) process works,
check the video out here.
Make sure to subscribe to Seeker for more COVID coverage, and as always, thanks so much for watching.
I’ll see you next time.