Scientists all over the world are looking for an answer to the question of where the new variant of the coronavirus, omicron, came from, and what features it has. After all, in the end, we are talking about when the pandemic will end, and how we can protect ourselves from new mutations of the coronavirus.
Despite the fact that there is not much data on this new variant of the coronavirus, one thing is clear: the omicron is dangerous! Because of the nearly 50 mutations in the spike protein that invade the human cell, the omicron can bypass the protection offered by coronavirus vaccines, since antibodies cannot always recognize it. This means that even those vaccinated can become infected with omicron, which can cause severe covid disease. In addition, the new variant of the coronavirus is more contagious, which can cause a collapse of the healthcare system in a short time. This week it became known about the first patients admitted to the hospital with the omicron variant, and about the first death from it in the UK.
Omicron Predictions
Omicron is widely distributed around the world and may supplant the delta variant. This development, scientists believe, shows that it will probably not be possible to quickly get rid of the coronavirus. Most likely, it will become endemic. This means that a pandemic will not cover the whole world, but will appear in waves in a certain place at a certain time – as it is seasonal, for example, in winter, with the influenza virus. Against this background, it is obvious how important vaccination against coronavirus, including booster vaccination, is.
The emergence of a more contagious variant “omicron” is of great interest to scientists, since it is not a mutation of the previous variant, but, presumably, arose or developed in parallel with the variants “alpha”, “beta”, “gamma” and “delta”. Because the omicron is so different from other variants of the virus, it’s hard to imagine what the next related viruses are, says Emma Hodcroft, a virologist at the University of Bern.
Where did the omicron come from?
Scientists have three plausible theories as to where the omicron and its predecessors could appear and have been for more than a year. According to the first theory, the omicron variant could appear in an isolated population where the virus has been circulating for a long time, many were imperceptibly infected with it, got sick and recovered, and tests did not show this.
Virologist Christian Drosten
This theory is supported by Christian Drosten, chief virologist at the Berlin Charité. In an interview with Science magazine, he said: “I proceed from the fact that the omicron did not appear in South Africa, where sequencing was carried out, but somewhere in southern Africa during the winter wave. the virus just needs colossal evolutionary pressure. “
Andrew Rambout of the University of Edinburgh does not believe this theory is convincing: “I am not sure that there is a place in the world that is so isolated that this variant of the virus could only be there for a long period of time and did not arise in other regions of the world.”
According to the second theory, “omicron” could appear in a person with chronic diseases and then infected with covid. Probably in someone with a weakened immune response due to other diseases and medications. This can be, for example, cancer or HIV / AIDS patients. As people with weakened immune systems fight the coronavirus longer, it has time to mutate and reproduce a variant that can bypass the immune response.
This theory is supported by Richard Lessels of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He gives the example of a young South African woman with HIV who has been a carrier of the coronavirus for over 6 months. She and other patients in whom the infection lasted several weeks or even months, were found to have mutations characteristic of variants of the virus causing anxiety.
Meanwhile, Christian Drosten does not agree with this theory. He believes that such people may develop a new variant of the virus that can bypass the immune system, but their ability to carry the virus from person to person is reduced. And “omicron”, in comparison with other viruses, is more contagious.
How animals influenced the omicron
The third theory of the origin of the “omicron” is that the virus could be in the body of an animal, then mutate and be transmitted to humans in the form of an omicron variant. This theory is supported by Kristian Andersen, an infectious disease researcher at Scripps Research and evolutionary biologist Mike Sparrow of the University of Arizona.
Thousands of minks destroyed in Denmark in 2020
The argument in favor of this theory is the existing evidence that certain animals can be infected with the coronavirus. This is the reason why most scientists, two years ago, during the outbreak in Wuhan, talked about the animal origin of the coronavirus.
In 2020, many minks were exterminated in Denmark, because scientists have proven that these animals have mutations of the coronavirus. Veterinarians assume that the martens were infected with a human virus. It is likely that these animals can infect people with a mutated version of the coronavirus. The next argument in favor of this theory is that the virus in the body of the animal causes other evolutionary changes, which explains the new mutations of the omicron.
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