LONDON: The head of the United Kingdom’s genetic surveillance programme said that the SARS-CoV-2 variant, which was first found in the British region of Kent, is a major cause of concern now for it could undermine the protection given by vaccines. Sharon Peacock, Director of the COVID-19 Genomic UK consortium, said that although this variant is so far dominant only in England, but it is likely to sweep the world, in all probability. The Kent variant has already been detected in more than 50 countries.
Peacock said that once humans get on top of the virus or the virus mutates itself out of being virulent, then everyone can stop worrying about it. She added that however, looking in the future, “I think, we’re still going to be doing this 10 years down the line.” Explaining her statement, she said that she does not believe that the pandemic would go on for 10 years, but that they would be sequencing new variants of the virus for that length of time.
Prof Peacock mentioned that it is normal to see variants of a virus, and only a small number have “special features”, but these special features can make them more transmissible, capable of avoiding the immune response, and affect vaccination, or even develop the potential to cause more severe diseases.