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The News Medical website stated that scientists are ready to tackle a new Corona virus mutation after Denmark announced a mutated virus mutation that passed on to 12 people from the animal “mink”, and the scientists have claimed that the transmission of the Corona virus from mink to humans does not necessarily mean the disease will become more dangerous, but scientists are preparing for it.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said the country will kill more than 15 million mink animals and that a different type of corona virus that has spread from animals to 12 people could affect the effectiveness of the vaccine.
Global media responded in shock, especially given the already high level of fear caused by a pandemic Crown Which killed more than 1.2 million people in less than a year, but specialist scientists are not convinced that the risk of the new mutation is great and are awaiting further evidence.
“I really hope the science trend stops with a press release,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York.
“There is no reason that genomic data cannot be shared, which will allow the scientific community to evaluate these claims,” he added on Twitter.
Viruses like those that appeared in China late last year are constantly evolving, and the new variants aren’t necessarily worse than their predecessors.
So far, no studies have shown that the new Corona variants are more contagious or dangerous than their predecessors.
A small number of cases of mink infected humans have also been reported.
Denmark was specific in describing how the different strain of the virus was transmitted from mink to humans.
“According to information received from the Danish authorities, this virus is neither the most pathogenic nor the most virulent,” a specialist from the French health agency, Gil Sulfat, told AFP.
He noted, however, that there are concerns that one of the variants “appears as a second virus and controls the population.”
The specialist stressed that “getting a vaccine for one strain is really complicated, and if we had to do it for two, four or six strains, it would be more complicated”.
The decision to execute the Danish mink was considered a “precautionary measure” justified from a health point of view.
Francois Palau, a professor at University College London, agrees, telling AFP: “This measure is fully justified from a health point of view to eliminate the source of transmission of dangerous viruses.”
However, he also felt that “evoking the risk that mink could generate a second pandemic appears excessive and counterproductive in the current frightening climate”. Palux noted that similar mutations within the population already existed and had not spread.
“We know that this virus with the same mutations appeared on mink farms and passed on to humans, and it hasn’t spread widely,” the professor said.
However, it was not “absolutely impossible” for the new strain to “spread and make vaccines less effective,” he acknowledged.
Meanwhile, James Wood, head of veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, noted that “the true effect of changes in the spike protein has not yet been evaluated by the international scientific community and is therefore unclear.”
He told the Science Media Center: “It’s too early to say that the change will lead to vaccine failure or immunity failure.”
Cases of virus contamination have also been detected COVID-19 From cats and dogs to lions and tigers at the New York Zoo.
But at this stage, “the risk of transmission to animals COVID-19 For humans it’s low, ” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Center for Disease Prevention and Control).
Salvat explained that cats and dogs are dead ends from an epidemiologist’s point of view, because “they can temporarily harbor the virus, but they can’t reproduce it enough to be contagious.”
However, the French authorities have solicited the patients Crown On “avoiding all contact” with their pets, particularly rodents, who belong to the same mink family, virologist Rasmussen expressed concern about the chances of Coronavirus spreading through feral cats.
And he warns, “Cats are vulnerable to infections and there are millions of feral cats in the United States (and millions more around the world). If cats become an established repository, we could be stuck with the crown for years to come.” .
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