Anonymous
By Dr. Henning Ansorg, M.D., FACP, Health Officer County of Santa Barbara, Department of Public Health
You may have heard about a new strain of COVID-19 (B117) that is more easily transmitted than the standard form of the virus. People who are exposed to this mutation of the virus are more likely to become infected. The first known U.S. case, in a Colorado National Guardsman in his 20s, was reported on December 30, 2020. In California, six cases of potentially more infectious new coronavirus variants were detected during the first week of the new year.
Fortunately, there is no evidence that this new COVID variant has a higher fatality rate or causes more severe illness than the currently predominant strain, according to the CDC. Robert Cyril Bollinger, Jr, M.D., M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins Medicine, sums it up: “Although the mutated coronavirus may spread faster from person to person, it does not appear any more likely to cause severe disease or death. We are not seeing any indication that the new strain is more virulent or dangerous in terms of causing more severe COVID-19 disease. For a virus to survive, it may be more advantageous for it to evolve so that it spreads more easily. On the other hand, viruses don’t get the chance to reproduce if they mutate to become deadly. If we get too sick or die from a particular virus, we can’t transmit it.”
Our currently authorized vaccines will protect people against the new strain. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said that the variant “doesn’t seem to evade the protection that’s afforded by the antibodies that are induced by vaccines.”
Stuart Ray, M.D., Vice Chair of Medicine for Data Integrity and Analytics at Johns Hopkins Medicine says that human behavior is important. “The more people who are infected, the more chances there are for a mutation to occur. Limiting the spread of the virus through maintaining COVID-19 safeguards (mask wearing, physical distancing and avoidance of gatherings and travel) give the virus fewer chances to change.”
For more information about local public health orders, guidance, and vaccine distribution in Santa Barbara County, please visit: https://publichealthsbc.org/
Source Information:
Dr. Henning Ansorg, M.D., FACP is a graduate of Justus-Liebig-University Medical School Giessen, Germany. He completed Residency training in Munich, Germany and Tucson, AZ and is board certified in Family Practice (Germany) and Internal Medicine (USA). Dr. Ansorg is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and is on the Medical Staff at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara. He has many years of experience in different clinical settings including 10 years of Private Practice and Urgent Care in Munich, Germany, as well as 11 years of Internal Medicine/Geriatrics in Arizona, as well as 4 years at the Santa Barbara County Health Care Center. Dr. Ansorg has served as Public Health Officer for Santa Barbara County since April 2019.
SBTOWNIE Nothing you wrote is correct.
1. Boris Johnson’s announcement was based on a single report from one not peer-reviewed report from NERVTAG research group, and exactly NOT FACT, by their own admission: “Some preliminary analyses have been undertaken which show that there *may* be an increase in the severity of disease associated with this new variant, B.1.1.7. There are some important limitations to the data on which these analyses are based. A relatively small number of people were included in the analyses.” The percentage number were invented. Try reading the research before you up your panic score.
2. We do sequence and track virus variants. There are currently at least three circulating here. This is a NORMAL process with viruses. FYI, viruses that mutate to become more deadly die off all that more quickly because it runs out of hosts faster. But that’s another story.
3. This story has already been pulled from the media source but I’m sure it’s still circulating on Facebook and among the fear and panic crowd:
“Dr. Fauci says new data shows Covid vaccines appear to be less effective against some new strains.
Early data shows that the Covid-19 vaccines on the market may not be as effective in guarding against more contagious strains of the coronavirus.” [CNBC}
Except that the headline is completely wrong. He DID NOT say that and the ACTUAL study had absolutely nothing to do with mRNA vaccine induced antibody response. That was not studied. The study, pre-print and not peer reviewed specifically cited that *convalescent plasma antibody treatment” is less effective against the South African variant. Not any other variant.
The take-home message is don’t be fooled. There’s a ton of garbage and mis-information out there. Please don’t write stuff that you cannot validate. If you do, write: this is my opinion. What I wrote is not my opinion, it is scientific facts.
What I need to know is that it’s a bunch of nonsense designed to keep people scared. Viruses (virii) mutate. This one is no more deadly and the vaccine works against it. Move on.
Logged in just to up vote you Ginger 1, 🙂
The new variant, known as lineage B.1.1.7., it’s actually a cluster of 23 separate mutations in the nucleotide coding sequence of the virus. The mutations are defined as being in the nucleotide sequence of the viral RNA. 17 of these nucleotide base pair changes (mutations) are of consequence and result in changes to the amino acid sequence of the viral proteins. 6 of these nucleotide changes (mutations) do not alter the final amino acid sequence of the viral proteins because there is some redundancy in the genetic code that results in some tolerance for mutations. A few of these amino acid changes are understood. The N501Y mutation changes the amino acid asparagine to the amino acid tyrosine at position 501 in the viral spike protein, which is the protein the virus uses to infect host cells. This single change causes an increase in affinity of the viral spike protein to the host cell ACE2 receptor on the cell surface. As the binding of the spike protein to the ACE2 receptor is how the virus infects our cells, any mutation that increase the binding affinity of the spike protein to the ACE2 receptor will increase the likelihood of infections that result from that interaction. This is probably one of reasons that B117 is spreading more quickly. Other mutations that result in amino acid changes include deletions of amino acids, as opposed to substitutions. The majority of the mutations seen in B117 are in the viral spike protein, though mutations have been found in three other viral proteins: ORF1ab, ORF8, and N. These mutations should not affect the effectiveness of the vaccines, as I believe these new COVID vaccines are designed to target multiple epitopes. Epitopes are small amino acid sequences found in the foreign proteins (antigens), such as the spike protein, and these epitopes are what are recognized by antibodies. A mutation that changes one amino acid in a single epitope would (hopefully) not allow the viral protein to escape an immune response that has been trained on several epitopes. As far as being more deadly, it’s too early to say yet. ORF8, which is one of the mutated viral proteins, may play a role in downregulating the expression of MHC I proteins in the host cell. The MHC I protein is part of the immune system and displays fragments of antigens (foreign proteins) on their surface for cytotoxic T cells (white blood cells) to recognize. If the mutation in ORF8 causes this protein to restrain the activity of MHC I, this could negatively impact the immune system and make it more difficult to fight off the virus.
Ginger 1, thank you for this response. Why would anyone listen to Boris anyway. He is still only a British version of Trump with better manners. And he did not say what the reports have headlined.
Chemfreak: This is really too much for Edhat. Please stop the pedantry and speak to the audience you are addressing. Too much show and not enough go.
Boris is a true blow hard. As a scientist I’d say please ignore that fellow. I have no idea what Chemsuperfreak was even trying to say.
I’m with Ginger, Sandy and especially Nonbidenary.
Bottom line – let’s all try and get vaccinated
Maybe reserve your rage for someone other than me, Ginger. You came at me with 3 paragraphs on getting vaccinated and how I should not write mistruths on EdHat and should preface everything I say with “this is my opinion”? WTH? I literally said NOTHING about not getting vaccinated, and it’s shoddy logic to think I’m advocating for vaccine avoidance because I warned that this strain may be more deadly. That is not what follows. The assumption – if there is even one to be made, which is deeply questionable – is that if one thinks a variant is more deadly, then one should support vaccination. Absolute total failure to read what I wrote (or what anyone wrote, literally where does one person in the article or in the comments oppose vaccination or do anything other than not mention it or specifically support it) and respond accordingly. Spare me next time.
All viruses mutate, Chem. We know that.
This is already out of date. Boris Johnson delivered a press conference today to announce that in fact the data indicate B117 is 30-40% more deadly than previous strains. The US has virtually no surveillance on this variant; it is newer here and we sequence and track far fewer cases. It is widespread now for several months in the UK, becoming the dominant strain and the data on mortality is very bad news. This is not just affecting the eldest. The example of an age group Boris gave for example was of increased deaths in 60s something men.