- An infectious disease expert told CNN that unvaccinated people may become the driving force for new variants.
- “People who are not vaccinated are potential mutation factories,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert.
- Duplicated mutations can become variants, and unvaccinated hosts can do this more easily.
- For more stories, please visit Business Insider.
An infectious disease expert said that people who have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 not only risk their health but are also “mutant factories” CNN.
“People who are not vaccinated are potential mutation factories,” Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CNN.
He added: “The more people who have not been vaccinated, the greater the chance of the virus reproducing.”
The variants evolve in people infected with the coronavirus.
“When it happens, it will mutate, and it may cause a more serious mutation,” Schaffner said.
Viruses, including the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, undergo mutations, and while some mutations may harm the virus, others may help. For example, mutations can help viruses be more spread.
When the virus spreads to another person, the mutation will replicate and spread, and if it succeeds and continues to spread, it will become a variant.
CNN reported that unvaccinated people provided the mutation an opportunity to continue to replicate.
Andrew Pecoz, a microbiologist and immunologist at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University, told CNN: “As mutations appear in the virus, those persistent mutations make the virus more likely to be in the population. Transmission.” Every time the virus changes, it will give the virus a different platform to add more mutations. Now we have a virus that spreads more effectively. “
Basically, if the virus cannot spread, it cannot mutate.
There Are already several variants of the coronavirus, Includes four called “Following Variants” World Health Organization,
These four viruses, including Alpha first discovered in the UK, Beta first discovered in South Africa, Gamma first discovered in Brazil, and Delta first discovered in India, pose a risk because they are either more likely to spread or cause more serious diseases , Either can escape immune protection.
These mutations were also found during periods of high infection cases.
Public health experts have paid special attention to the risks that the Delta variant poses to those who have been vaccinated. Although vaccines have been found to be effective against these variants, they may not be effective against some variants. For example, two doses of Pfizer’s vaccine have been found to be 88% effective Prevention of Covid-19 symptomatic cases from Delta variants.
However, in the United States, experts worry that this mutation will spread and lead to breakthrough cases, especially in communities with low vaccination rates. The fewer people vaccinated, the greater the chance that the virus will spread from one person to another.
“Currently, approximately 1,000 counties in the United States have vaccination coverage of less than 30%. These communities, mainly located in the Southeast and Midwest, are our most vulnerable areas. In some of these areas, we have seen an increase in disease incidence. ,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters The White House briefing on Thursday. “As the Delta variant continues to spread across the country, we expect the spread of these communities to increase unless we can vaccinate more people now.”
Expert is Urge more Americans to get vaccinated To prevent spread.
