Scientists warn virus variant from India ‘needs urgent investigation’
A LEADING epidemiologist says it is crucial British scientists urgently learn as much as they can about the Indian Covid-19 variant to assess what action needs to be taken to restrict its transmission.
Mike Tildesley, a member of the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, which provides infectious disease modelling evidence on coronavirus to the Government’s Sage (Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) committee, says it is not surprising the new variant has emerged but that it needs to be thoroughly investigated as soon as possible.
“I would always say when these new variants do emerge it is a concern and it’s really important we get as much information as we can as quickly as possible,” Dr Tildesley, from the University of Warwick, told BBC News.
“What’s concerning about the Indian variant is there appear to be two mutations which... may make the vaccines less effective and may make the virus more transmissible.
“The key thing here is ‘may’. We are still trying to gather evidence about this.”
Dr Tildesley said the emergence of new Covid variants was not surprising, but that action to combat local clusters as they appear may be necessary.
“It’s not surprising new variants emerge. They’re emerging all the time,” he said.
“But as we get more information, if we do get evidence that they are evading the vaccine and they are more transmissible, what we need to do is take action to really suppress those. It may be surge testing is needed to stamp down on local clusters of infection if we do get evidence that this is a real variant of concern.”
Dr Tildesley said it was likely in future that vaccines would be adjusted to address mutations, much like flu vaccines are changed most years.
“Every time you have a [flu] vaccine... it’s not the same one you have every year. It will be tweaked to combat whatever happens to be circulating at the time,” he said. “We’re not quite there yet of course with Covid vaccines that can be tweaked to protect against new variants, but my understanding is the vaccine companies are working on this, and in the longer term we should be able to provide boosters to people to protect against whatever new variants are circulating.”
Environment Secretary George Eustice said there is no evidence the Indian variant of coronavirus is able to “get around” the vaccine.
Asked about the variant from India on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday, Mr Eustice said: “The last I think I saw... there were around 70 cases. But I think I’ve seen lots of different numbers on different variants – you’ll appreciate, there is quite a few – so it is a fairly small number at the moment.
But it is something that we are watching.
“I’m told there is no evidence at the moment this particular variant is able to get around the vaccine, for instance, or indeed that it is necessarily more contagious than the others.”
Mr Eustice added the Prime Minister’s trip to India should go ahead later this month. He said: “Public health does come first but there doesn’t mean there should be no visits at all for business purposes.”
Mr Eustice said “for something like this, I think yes it is appropriate”, adding: “But measures will be taken to ensure the visit is Covid-secure.”
Dr Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser for NHS Test and Trace, said there had been cases where people had become reinfected by different strains of the coronavirus.
“We have seen some people who have had their first dose of vaccine who have had the South African variant and the variant that arose in Kent,” she told The Andrew Marr Show.
“That’s to be expected, we know these vaccines aren’t 100 per cent protecting you against infection and that’s why we ask people to take caution. You can see they’re not as good against the South African variant as they are against our own [variant] B117 at preventing infection and transmission.
“It is highly likely these [vaccines] will be effective in reducing hospitalisations and deaths because it is a primer for your immune system. When your immune system is exposed to a variation of the same virus it responds faster and more adequately to protect you against severe disease.”