The novel coronavirus is morphing into a tougher variant over time, experts have warned. According to them, the mutations identified in the virus are worrisome, and as per the finds of the scientists, the virus will get more contagious and threatening.
Experts are hesitant about making any predictions about when the pandemic will end and most scientists have accepted the truth that the virus will likely stay forever.
There are some majors reasons why the virus will stay and not go anywhere. First, there are already four human coronaviruses endemic in our population. It means that they will circulate perpetually.
“It’s safe to say we’re not going to eradicate it,” said Dr Becky Smith, an infectious disease specialist at Duke Health. “Too many people in the world have it. It’s too efficient at transmitting.”
Secondly, the virus is zoonotic; it can jump from animal to humans or vice versa. Moreover, the SARS-CoV-2 has also emerged. So, even if we manage to eradicate SARS-CoV-2; the human and animals would likely produce a deadlier variant.
Scientists have also predicted that the SARS-CoV-2 would turn into endemic; the intensity will reduce to the only flue and common cold. It’s a sign of hope, but it would likely happen over a period of five to ten years.
Vaccination will not be available to everyone said Mike Osterholm, a leading infectious disease expert, adding it would be nearly impossible to make a yearly coronavirus vaccine available to every person on Earth.
“It is going to be with us forever,” said Osterholm, who directs of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said of the virus. “It is something we can’t eradicate from humans.”
As far as the new variants are concerned, the new South African (carrying B.1.351) virus shows resistance to Moderna’s vaccine. The new variant carries ten mutations in the virus’ spike protein, and it has forced vaccine makers to change their strategies. The P.1 variant of Brazil also have the same potency.
Earlier, companies that produced Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, and Novavax have also raised concerns that vaccines won’t work well against B.1.351 or other variants with similar mutations.
It is also possible that more powerful variants could drown out old versions of the virus, making the pandemic harder to combat. Virus experts in the US are already predicting that the fast-spreading B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered in the UK, will become the dominant variant in America by this May.
But it’s impossible to predict what changes the virus might undergo next, or what they’ll mean for us because not all mutations make viruses more dangerous.
