Filenews 22 March 2021
The New York mutation of the coronavirus could infect people who have already been infected with Covid or have been vaccinated, former Head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Professor Scott Gottlieb, said yesterday.
As the American newspaper "New York Post" reports, Dr . Gottlieb argued that it remains unclear whether the "local" mutation of the New York virus, known as B.1,526, is responsible for the increase in cases in Brooklyn and Queens.
"What (scientists) haven't clarified is whether the 'B.1.526' mutation can infect people who have already been vaccinated or have been infected with coronavirus," Professor Gottlieb stressed on the US network's "FACE the Nation" show, presented by journalist Margaret Brennan.
"The New York mutation contains a mutation similar to South Africa's B.1.351 variant, which has shown 'in some cases' that it can infect people who had already been sick again," the American official explains.
"The question is whether the 'B.1.526' mutation is responsible for the increase in cases we are seeing in New York at the moment and, if this is the beginning of a new epidemic in the big city," he added.
The former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also stressed that public health experts do not have sufficient data to draw clear conclusions.
For this reason, he also called on the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to work with New York officials to identify possible cases of coronavirus linked to the B.1.526 mutation, which he warned "is likely to be more prevalent than we consider."
New mutation detected in Belgium
A new mutation of the coronavirus was detected in Belgium by the University of Liège and is currently associated with about 4% of infections in the country.
The strain - B.1.214 or "Spike Insertion" - was first discovered in January and its spread is being closely monitored by researchers from ULiège and KU Leuven, Le Soir newspaper reported.
"At present, about 100 cases have been recorded with this variant and much more data is needed to find out the effects of the virus. But we can see that it is gradually increasing in Belgium, especially in Brussels, Flemish Brabant and Edo," said Vincent Bours, professor of human genetics and head of the Sars-Cov-2 analysis and sequencing laboratory at the University of Liège.
He added that this variant caught the attention of scientists because it had a "mutation that had almost never been observed before."
Source: eyenews/protothema.gr
