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The coronavirus could be “just a few mutations potentially away” from evolving into a variant that can evade existing COVID-19 …
Good Subscriber Account active since The coronavirus could be “just a few mutations potentially away” from evolving into a variant that can evade existing COVID-19 vaccines, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday. According to research published Friday in the journal Scientific Reports, vaccinated people — counterintuitively — play a key role in that risk. The best way to stop coronavirus deaths and severe illness is to roll out vaccines quickly. However, the researchers concluded that the chance a vaccine-resistant strain will emerge is highest in a scenario that combines three conditions: First, a large portion of a population is vaccinated, but not everyone. Second, there’s a lot of virus circulating. And third, no measures are in place to curb potential viral transmission from vaccinated people. Sound familiar? Before the rise of Delta, which is now responsible for more than 80% of US coronavirus cases, that situation wasn’t a concern because research suggested vaccinated people weren’t likely to transmit other versions of the virus. But according to a CDC study released Friday, vaccinated people may transmit the Delta variant just as easily as the unvaccinated. That could help explain the recent surge in US cases: In the last month, the country’s seven-day average of new daily cases has more than quintupled: from 12,263 on June 29 to 71,621 on Thursday. The researchers concluded that, in an environment where Delta is spreading among all people — regardless of vaccination status — it is imperative to get more people vaccinated immediately to prevent the emergence of a new vaccine-resistant variant.
