Hitting new highs for novel coronvirus AKA SARS CoV-2 or Covid-19, a new more contagious mutation called B117 from the United Kingdom found its way to Colorado, an ominous development when you consider hospitals in the U.S. are already at the breaking point. Whatever effect the Pfizer and Modern vaccines have had, it hasn’t stopped Covid-19 from swamping the U.S. hospital system now at maximum capacity. Health officials around the country are concerned. With the worst U.S. outbreak in California, the state recorded its 2,115,418 cases with 24,591 deaths, an astonishing figure forcing 52-year-old Gov. Gavin Newsom to shut down most population centers, especially Los Angeles County. Health officials are concerned about the B117 strain because stringent mask-wearing, social distancing and personal hygiene have not slowed the spread of Covid-19.
U.S. coronavirus czar Moncef Slaoui, Ph.D. in molecular biology from Brussels Free University, said he expects the Pfizer and Modern vaccines to work with the U.K’s B117 strain, despite the fact that the virus is some 70% more contagious than the novel cornonavirus. “There is a lot we don’t’ know a bout this new Covid-19 variant, but scientists in the United Kingdom are warning the world that it is significantly more contagious. The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority and we will closely monitor this case, as we as all Covid-19 indicators, very closely,” said Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. Polis confirmed the first case in Colorado of B117, quarantining the patient in Elbert County, an hour-and-a-half south of Denver. Health officials say that the unnamed patient in his 20s has no have a travel history to the U.K. or any other foreign destination where he contracted B117.
Working feverishly at contact tracing, Colorado health officials have not identified how the patient contracted the B117 strain. “We are working to prevent spread and contain the virus at all levels,” Polis said. How Colorado’s patient, who didn’t travel abroad, got infected with B117 is troubling because it could mean the old novel coronvirus has already mutated in the United States. British Prime Minister first reported on the B118 variant Dec. 21, accounting for the heavy spread of the virus in Southern England. Johnson confirmed the B117 strain could be 70% more contagious than the original novel coronavirus, presenting problems for health authorities trying to accommodate the flood of cases swamping hospitals in the U.K. and U.S. CDC officials confirmed that the B117 strain has been circulating in the U.S., perhaps accounting for recent spikes around the country.
Currently with travel bans to the U.K., the reset of European Union, including Ireland, France, Belgium, Germany and Spain announced travel bans to the U.K. to stop the spread of the B117 strain. But CDC officials suggested that the B117 may have already morphed from the original coronavirus strain in the U.S. currently battling the most cases in the world with 19,949,430 cases and 346,248 deaths. With South Africa also reporting a similar strain to B117, closing borders may not stop the B117 from replacing the original novel coronavirus. Virologists aren’t that surprised by the B117 variant because ordinary coronviruses undergo one to two mutations a month, said epidemiologist Brian Labus, Ph.D., professor of public health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Mutations and new strains are inevitable as viruses adapt over time to new environments.
U.K.’s B117 coronavirus variant was a natural consequence of the virus mutating over time. “Everything that has genetic material will undergo mutation, and that’s really the driving force behind evolution. But viruses mutate much more frequently, especially RNA viruses, like coronaviruses,” said Angela Rasmussen Ph.D., a virologist at Georgetown University’s Center for Global Health Science and Security. “We expect viruses to mutate over time,” Labus said. “Normally coronviruses will gradually accumulate mutations as they’re spreading in a population. But for this one, a bunch of mutations popped up all at once,” Labus said. Russmussen thinks that eight out of 23 mutations have been in the spike protein that invades human cells. Rasmussen cautions while it’s possible the B117 is more transmissible, it hasn’t yet been proven in the laboratory to confirm it.
Turing up in a variety of countries, it’s possible that the original coronavirus morphed through mutations into the B117 variant, appearing based on epidemiological data to be 70% more transmissible. “The real answer right now is that we don’t actually know it’s more transmissible. If it is, then there might be something going on in one or more of these mutations in this variant to make it that way,” Rasmussen said, not knowing for sure that it’s more contagious than the original novel coronavirus. “Its very much and active area of research, but we can’t say for sure that the rapid increase and prevalence is suggestive that it might have some advances that let it transmit more rapidly,” Rasmussen said. From Wuhan, China to every corner of the globe, the novel coronavirus has undergone multiple mutations as it adapts over time. Whether it’s more contagious or not is anyone’s guess.
