COVID-19 Surge in China Raises Odds of New Coronavirus Mutant

Beijing, Dec 25: Could the COVID-19 surge in China unleash a new coronavirus mutant on the world?

Scientists don't know but worry that might happen. It could be similar to omicron variants circulating there now. It could be a combination of strains. Or something entirely different, they say.슬롯 머신 사이트 추천TikTok Star Boogie B Fatally Shot After Getting Caught in Crossfire of Gunfight Between Two Men in New Orleans.

슬롯사이트œChina has a population that is very large and there's limited immunity. And that seems to be the setting in which we may see an explosion of a new variant," said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University.

Every new infection offers a chance for the coronavirus to mutate, and the virus is spreading rapidly in China. The country of 1.4 billion has largely abandoned its 슬롯사이트œzero COVID슬롯사이트� policy. Though overall reported vaccination rates are high, booster levels are lower, especially among older people. Domestic vaccines have proven less effective against serious infection than Western-made messenger RNA versions. Many were given more than a year ago, meaning immunity has waned.

The result? Fertile ground for the virus to change. 슬롯사이트œWhen we've seen big waves of infection, it's often followed by new variants being generated,슬롯사이트� Ray said. About three years ago, the original version of the coronavirus spread from China to the rest of the world and was eventually replaced by the delta variant, then omicron and its descendants, which continue plaguing the world today.

Dr. Shan-Lu Liu, who studies viruses at Ohio State University, said many existing omicron variants have been detected in China, including BF.7, which is extremely adept at evading immunity and is believed to be driving the current surge.

Experts said a partially immune population like China's puts particular pressure on the virus to change. Ray compared the virus to a boxer that 슬롯사이트œlearns to evade the skills that you have and adapt to get around those.슬롯사이트� One big unknown is whether a new variant will cause more severe disease. Experts say there's no inherent biological reason the virus has to become milder over time.

슬롯사이트œMuch of the mildness we've experienced over the past six to 12 months in many parts of the world has been due to accumulated immunity either through vaccination or infection, not because the virus has changed" in severity, Ray said. COVID-19 Surge in China: Expect Close to 100 Million Coronavirus Cases, One Million Deaths, Says Dr Neeraj Kumar Gupta.

In China, most people have never been exposed to the coronavirus. China's vaccines rely on an older technology producing fewer antibodies than messenger RNA vaccines. Given those realities, Dr. Gagandeep Kang, who studies viruses at the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, said it remains to be seen if the virus will follow the same pattern of evolution in China as it has in the rest of the world after vaccines came out. 슬롯사이트œOr," she asked, 슬롯사이트œwill the pattern of evolution be completely different?슬롯사이트�

Recently, the World Health Organization expressed concern about reports of severe disease in China. Around the cities of Baoding and Langfang outside Beijing, hospitals have run out of intensive care beds and staff as severe cases surge. China's plan to track the virus centers around three city hospitals in each province, where samples will be collected from walk-in patients who are very sick and all those who die every week, Xu Wenbo of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention said at a briefing Tuesday.

He said 50 of the 130 omicron versions detected in China had resulted in outbreaks. The country is creating a national genetic database 슬롯사이트œto monitor in real time슬롯사이트� how different strains were evolving and the potential implications for public health, he said. At this point, however, there's limited information about genetic viral sequencing coming out of China, said Jeremy Luban, a virologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

슬롯사이트œWe don't know all of what's going on,슬롯사이트� Luban said. But clearly, "the pandemic is not over.슬롯사이트�

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