The rejection of a new crown vaccine is not just a risk of taking health risks. Once infected with COVID-19, it will pose a major threat to more people. Professor William Schaffner, an expert in infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, pointed out in an exclusive interview with CNN that people who have not been vaccinated are likely to become "virus mutation factories" after long-term infection.
For example, last week, the British reported a case of a 72 year old man, an immunosuppressive patient who had been infected with COVID-19 for 300 days and found a mutation similar to that of COVID-19 B.1.1.7. In early June, a HIV infected person in South Africa had been infected with COVID-19 for 216 days, and COVID-19 had 32 mutations in her body.
Schaffner explained that all viruses will mutate constantly, and COVID-19's mutation ability is weaker than that of other RNA viruses. Although most of the mutations have no significance to the risk of the virus, and some can even reduce the risk, there will always be a mutation that will bring it a competitive advantage, such as strong transmissibility, strong reproductive capacity, or the ability to infect other hosts, etc. Especially under the condition of long-term infection, the virus can survive for a long time under the pressure of the immune system, and it is more likely to produce more resistant variants.
Last summer, a virus carrying the d614g mutation spread from Europe to the United States, to most parts of the world. From the end of last year to this year, most of the mutations continued to occur on the basis of d614g mutation. At present, the most common variants in the world are as follows: b.1.1.7, alpha variant, which was first found in the UK; B.1.351, beta variant found in South Africa; B.1.617.2, delta variant found in India. In the United States, two variants were found: b.1.427, ipsilateran variant, found in California; B.1.526, ETA variant found in New York.
The more people who are not vaccinated, the greater the risk of virus infection and mutation. This kind of virus with competitive advantage will eventually win over other viruses and become the dominant virus in a patient's body; Virus has become one of the most common virus variants in the society through the continuous transmission between people.
At present, the new coronavirus vaccine can resist virus variants, but this immune situation may change at any time, so the popularization of the vaccine is imminent.
