Date Published: 03/11/2020
ARCHIVED - Valencia coronavirus mutation will not be resistant to vaccine
ARCHIVED ARTICLE Scientists calculate that the strain of Covid accounts for 29 per cent of cases in Europe after being spread by summer holidaymakers
Scientists analysing the spread of the coronavirus in Europe are now asserting that a mutant strain of the infection which is currently spreading throughout the continent originated in Valencia in late May or early June, but at the same time other researchers are expressing confidence that this “new” strain will not be detrimental to the effectiveness of the vaccines which are being worked on.
Emma Hodcroft of the University of Basel in Switzerland, which is collaborating with other Swiss teams and the SegCovid-Spain consortium, reports that “we believe that the mutation will not affect the effectiveness of the vaccine”, explaining that the vaccine targets specific parts of the virus which are unaltered by the mutation concerned.
It has been established that the particular strain which first appeared in Valencia and among agricultural workers in Aragón accounts for around 29 per cent of cases in Europe, while the second most widespread is one which originated in France and Belgium and which is now responsible for 22 per cent of cases. However, Dr Hodcroft reassuringly states that it is quite normal for viruses to mutate frequently, and that in fact SARS-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, is relatively stable with new mutations around twice a month. These mutations, she adds, do not affect the basic structure of the virus or how it works.
In an online interview Dr Hodcroft informed that the findings of her team seem to indicate that the spreading of the Valencia mutation was most likely caused by international travellers during the summer, and that the number of new cases began to rise again in Spain before it did so in other countries, with the exception of Belgium. With the benefit of hindsight, she identifies a premature relaxation of travel rules throughout Europe after governments mistakenly believed that the arrival of the “new normality” coincided with an “endless summer” in which travel became feasible again.
Very few countries, she points out, demanded negative test results for visitors arriving within their borders, and the stipulation of voluntary rather than obligatory quarantines on arrival is hardly likely to have helped limit the spread of the virus. In this sense, the Swiss researchers do not hold the “Spanish variant” of Covid-19 to blame for the second wave, instead pointing the finger at governments which were slow to introduce measures earlier in the autumn.
At the same time, of course, the arrival of cooler weather has exacerbated the situation: people gather indoors rather than outdoors in areas with insufficient ventilation, making it easier for airborne contagion to take place.
As for the proliferation of cases among agricultural workers, Emma Hodcroft cites the lack of protection afforded to those who are most vulnerable in society, such as immigrants, and warns that as a consequence of this inequality the rest of society also ends up suffering.
Meanwhile, companies in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors all over the world continue to work on various potential vaccines, with around a dozen now known to be in different phases of testing.