likely to continue mutants The new Corona virus will appear even if the entire population of the world receives a vaccine against the virus, according to what some health experts have warned.
Even if the entire world is vaccinated, the risk of new mutations emerging will still exist, said Andrew Friedman, an academic in infectious diseases at Cardiff University School of Medicine, noting that some may be more virulent than Omicron.
“It is possible that future mutants will be more contagious, or milder, but we can’t know for sure,” he said, according to CNBC.
Prevent new mutant
The experts’ statements came as vaccines have proven to greatly protect people from severe infection and hospitalization, and apart from the fact that widespread vaccination coverage is likely to save millions of lives, it is also likely to help prevent the emergence of new mutations, according to experts.
So far, 58.6% of the world’s population has received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, with 9.28 billion doses given worldwide, according to Our World in Data.
It is noteworthy that the Corona virus, which first appeared in China in late 2019, continued to mutate and develop during the epidemic.
Mutant Omicron (Shutterstock)
virus evolution
Some mutations have proven to be more effective in enabling the virus to spread. Mutants like the alpha strain, which was first discovered in the UK in September 2020, have spread all over the world.
Then the “delta” mutant, which was discovered in India in October 2020, was replaced by the alpha mutant.
Delta (Shterstock)
The world is now battling the omicron mutant, which is more transmissible than delta but appears to cause less serious disease, according to a growing body of studies carried out in rapid time since the mutant first appeared in South Africa in November 2021.
It is reported that the majority of the adult population fully vaccinated in wealthy countries, such as those in Europe or the United States.
But in low-income countries, only 8.5% of people received at least one dose of the vaccine, the data show.