COVID-19 — Coronavirus

[Marvin]

There have been hundreds of mutations, exactly how many I have no idea.
A single point mutation is rarely significant, but this new one has 17, and the concern was that several are in the spike protein which the three vaccines to date are focussed on.

Confirmation of your comment here:

Summary of mutations by UK genomics

 

[Craig]

Remember when Muslims were being blamed for the second wave, including by people on here?

Bloody hell, what was that about?

Think it was about big groups gathering together.

 

[domalino]

Maybe some need the optimism to keep going.
Im sponge for positivity and negativity. So any positive news lifts me.

The AstraZeneca vaccine should be getting approved in the next week, which will be a game changer as it's so much easier to distribute and they've already got 15 million doses waiting to be put into vials and shipped.

 

[BlueHammer85]

I dont no how you come to that conclusion.mate.
When clapping for the NHS,
There were illegal raves going on around the country with thousands in attendance,besides other fkwitts disregarded the rules.

Imagine we had no source of media, we would be completely f*cked!

all the rules on social distancing, hand washing, contagious areas etc have been given to us via the media.

 

[MillionMilesAway]

Confirmation of your comment here:

Summary of mutations by UK genomics

Thanks, that's a well-written document.

The A222V mutation is a good indicator - a lot of occurrences but probably of very limited effect; A and V amino acids are chemically very similar and also chemically quite dull, so the mutation is probably not important.

As antibodies (natural or derived by vaccine) work on making a square cover to fit on a square peg of the virus, the problems come when the mutation turns the square plug into a non-square cover (due to the 3d shape of the virus and antibody).

 

[ayrshire_blue]

The AstraZeneca vaccine should be getting approved in the next week, which will be a game changer as it's so much easier to distribute and they've already got 15 million doses waiting to be put into vials and shipped.

This may already have been answered, but is the AZ vaccine just as likely to work against the new mutation as the BioNTech one or does this this differ due to the different makeup of the two vaccines? Is AZ potentially in more trouble or potentially better placed?

 

[MillionMilesAway]

The AstraZeneca vaccine should be getting approved in the next week, which will be a game changer as it's so much easier to distribute and they've already got 15 million doses waiting to be put into vials and shipped.

That's as I see it too. As soon as that passes, every GP and many pharmacies will get boxloads of the stuff, and quite possibly other big centres too for anyone not registered. Many will be happy to open for long hours to get it done.

Setting e.g. army medics and any volunteers trained in injections would allow fairly high throughput in sports halls, etc.

The difficulty is probably recordkeeping.

 

[Churchlawtonblue]

If its by Prof Neil Ferguson theyll print it. The beeb love him.

Is he the leading scientist that decided to break the first lockdown just so he could have sex with his lover? Lost a fair bit of credibility for me at that point!

 

[MillionMilesAway]

This may already have been answered, but is the AZ vaccine just as likely to work against the new mutation as the BioNTech one or does this this differ due to the different makeup of the two vaccines? Is AZ potentially in more trouble or potentially better placed?

No way to be certain, but likely to be the same basis.

All three work on the spike protein, so if the psike protein doesn't change too much, they will probably work.

 

[ayrshire_blue]

No way to be certain, but likely to be the same basis.

All three work on the spike protein, so if the psike protein doesn't change too much, they will probably work.

Thank you, that puts me at ease slightly. Had it in my head somehow that the BioNTech one was a completely different profile from AZ and as such the AZ possibly didn't have the same confidence against such mutations as this.