The good news is that the vaccines work against a new virus strain circulating in India that\u2019s spread to several other countries.<\/p>\n
The bad news is it won\u2019t be only the new version of the pathogen to emerge from an outbreak of this scale, underscoring the urgency of mapping other possible variants that may be currently racing through India\u2019s tightly-packed population of 1.4 billion people.<\/p>\n
As infections surge by more than 300,000 cases for 15 straight days, pushing India\u2019s tally past 21 million, the country\u2019s limited ability to track new mutations emerging from its outbreak is a growing concern for scientists. India reported a record 412,262 new infections and 3,980 deaths Thursday.<\/p>\n
Second- or even third-generation versions of the variant known as B.1.617 could already be circulating in India and some may be more dangerous, said William Haseltine, a former Harvard Medical School professor who now chairs think tank Access Health International.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndia has the necessary genome sequencing capabilities but it needs to have a mass surveillance program,\u201d Haseltine said. \u201cI\u2019ll be on the lookout for more and newer variants, given the opportunity the virus has had with such a massive outbreak.\u201d<\/p>\n
Variants are already outracing vaccination progress in many parts of the world, fueling bigger outbreaks that spread faster. While some rich nations that secured effective vaccines early have seen their epidemics wane, the virus is still spreading like wildfire in developing economies, prolonging the pandemic.<\/p>\n
Super Mutant Debunked<\/strong><\/p>\n Mutations occur when the virus replicates, and India\u2019s unprecedented surge is driving new cases to global records, even as richer economies like the US and Israel re-open quickly. Fearing an influx of infections and mindful of B.1.617, Singapore, the UK and Tanzania are among countries that have curbed travel to and from India.<\/p>\n Australia has banned its citizens from returning from India and imposed penalties of roughly $50,000 and five years imprisonment for violators.<\/p>\n The India strain has been called a double mutant because of the presence of two changes in the virus\u2019s genome, called E484Q and L452R. Both affect a portion of the spike protein, called the receptor binding domain, that\u2019s key to the virus entering cells.<\/p>\n Some researchers estimate that the B.1.617 variant is as transmissible as the B.1.1.7 variant that emerged in the UK, thought to be as much as 70% more transmissible than earlier versions of the virus.<\/p>\n Yet initial analyses indicate that the India version, now classified a variant of interest by the World Health Organization, poses a limited threat and doesn\u2019t appear to be more dangerous.<\/p>\n Covaxin, the inactivated-virus vaccine being made by India\u2019s Bharat Biotech International Ltd, and AstraZeneca Plc\u2019s vaccine, called Covishield in India, are effective against the strain in preventing serious illness, said Rakesh Mishra, director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology in Hyderabad, one of the labs analyzing virus samples.<\/p>\n Data is still being gathered about the response to Russia\u2019s Sputnik V vaccine, Mishra said, but it\u2019s likely to be effective.<\/p>\n BioNTech SE chief executive officer Ugur Sahin said he was confident the mRNA shot it\u2019s making with partner Pfizer Inc would work against the India mutant though testing is still ongoing. Singapore, which tightened social distancing restrictions this week after findings cases linked to the India variant, has also seen vaccines hold up well to prevent serious illness, said Kenneth Mak, director of medical services in city-state\u2019s health ministry.<\/p>\n But \u201cvaccination does not prevent you from getting infected 100%,\u201d he said in a Tuesday briefing.<\/p>\n Ravindra Gupta\u2019s team at the University of Cambridge recently studied the two mutations that appear on the receptor binding domain of the India variant\u2019s spike protein. The team tested viruses made to simulate the variant against serum from nine people who had already received a single dose of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine.<\/p>\n ICMR study shows #COVAXIN<\/a> neutralises against multiple variants of SARS-CoV-2 and effectively neutralises the double mutant strain as well. @MoHFW_INDIA<\/a> @DeptHealthRes<\/a> #IndiaFightsCOVID19<\/a> #LargestVaccineDrive<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/syv5T8eHuR<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 ICMR (@ICMRDELHI) April 21, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\n\u201cThe Indian variant has the same mutation that we\u2019ve already investigated and against which our vaccine was also effective,\u201d he said last week.<\/p>\n\n