Expert caution against emergence of covid-19 super variants

Doosuur Iwambe, Abuja

A professor at the clinical microbiology at the University of Cambridge, Prof Ravi Gupta has cautioned against the emergence of covid-19 super mutant adding that it will continue to do weird things.

Gupta, while disclosing that the coronavirus is unpredictable, warned that we should not be overconfident at any stage.

He revealed that while the emergence of the new mutant would not necessarily be a bad thing, the virus would try to become more efficient at transmission as more people are protected.

Asked about how to prepare for future variants, Prof Gupta told a press briefing good vaccines were already available adding that there was a need to keep pressure on vaccines.

 “I think we have good vaccines, now we need to keep the pressure on vaccine designers, manufacturers to adapt vaccines.

 “Secondly, the virus is going to do some weird things. I mean, this is just the beginning.

“I think it’s going to recombine, you’re going to get super mutant viruses, I believe.

“That’s not necessarily a terrible thing, but the virus is going to do very unexpected things because the amount of pressure on it is going to be severe, so it will adapt.

“We know that people still get chronic infections and that’s how this all happens in general.

“It is hard to say what is going to happen, but the virus is going to find ways of becoming more infectious – you can see that already, when it’s under pressure it will try to be more efficient in transmission so that it can achieve the job with fewer virus particles’’, he said.

Referring to some of the mutations seen in the variant first detected in India, the expert said they were “just the beginning” and that there would be further changes to the virus, not only for antibody escape but to increase transmissibility.

The Indian variant is highly transmissible, is spreading across the UK, and has become the dominant strain in some parts of the country.