Although it is well known that viruses mutate, the announcement of the rapid spread of new variants of the COVID-19 virus in the UK and in South Africa had the effect of a bomb to many of us, all around the world. This news shouldn’t have come as a surprise as it was highly predictable and therefore expected by most of the experts, but it just came at a very bad time.
Indeed, we had only few days in last December to enjoy the good news of the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccine – and to build hope from it – before we heard about the appearance of the new strain in the UK. Let’s say – and please excuse the bad pun – that the Scottish shower effect was quite brutal. But beyond this perfectly understandable emotional reaction, there also are scientific reasons to be concerned about the new variants. Amongst them are the facts that their spreading rate seem to be greater when compared to the “normal” SARS-CoV-2 and that we actually do not know yet how effective the new vaccines are against these new variants. It will – again – take time before we’ll have answers (and not only assumptions) to this question and, if needed, to develop new or “updated” vaccines.
The pandemic has put huge expectations on the healthcare and life science communities, and it has at the same time given birth to a spontaneous generation of amateur epidemiologists and biostatisticians. On one side it reminds us that our knowledge is, by essence, limited and that we have to be humble to strive to push off these limits. On another side it shows us how fast life – also under the form of a small and biologically simple living entity like a virus – can evolve and adapt to its environment, like ours are and will for sure be able to do.
So, concerns about the new variants certainly are legitimate, for both emotional and rational reasons. But what will make the difference is what we will do with these concerns and how much we will be able to learn from them and the questions they raise.
In particular, deepening the study of spike protein mutations will provide us with valid answers on the way to fight against SARS-CoV-2 and its variants.