More Variants of Coronavirus

How many more variants of Coronavirus?

Anika H. Ahmed, MD

Medical practitioners started seeing patients sick with flu like symptoms in early March of 2020 and the cause was identified as a deadly, highly contagious, droplet transmissible virus from the Coronavirus family. The disease with symptoms of fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, body aches, loss of sense of smell and taste, difficulty in breathing, extreme fatigue etc was named Covid-19. Scientists worked day in and out to find a vaccine to fight this infectious Coronavirus and it took them close to a year to get approval for a vaccine for adults. As people across the globe heaved a sigh of relief and opted to get vaccinated despite concerns of its safety, efficacy and long-term side effects, there came a variant of the Wuhan Coronavirus. This was followed by first an Alpha variant, then a delta variant and now an Omicron variant.

As vaccination becomes available to more and more people in every country, the question arises that with variants popping up in different parts of the world-Alpha in the United Kingdom, Delta in India, and Omicron in South Africa, is there any benefit of getting vaccinated in the first place? This is a legitimate question on the minds of many people vaccinated or non-vaccinated. Research based on clinical trials, observational studies and questionnaire surveys indicate that all the variants of the Coronavirus namely, Alpha, Delta and Omicron spread readily, speedily, and dangerously in non-vaccinated populations, as compared to vaccinated population. The fact that just in a weeks’ time Omicron positive cases of 400/day went up to 10,000 per day in a week’s time was mainly due to the low vaccination status of the general population of South Africa.

It is worth noting that these dangerous variants of Coronavirus will continue to emerge and cause alarm and illness across the globe. This virus continues to evolve and as long as the virus has millions of people with weak immune systems, low antibodies profiles, non-vaccinated status, it will continue to potentially infect the vulnerable population and continue to become more and more infectious, mutating and giving rise to new variants. The new Omicron wave of the Covid-19 pandemic starting in South Africa could lead to a new ‘Omicron Plus’ variant. There is certainly an immediate worldwide threat with this new variant and all the countries with low vaccination rates are going to see more infections all because the Coronavirus can spread, so much more easily. Scientists expect and are preparing for more variants to come in future, due to continued evolution of the Coronavirus.

However, there is light at the end of the tunnel, and one is greatly encouraged by the fact that fortunately the Coronavirus has still not evolved to evade the available vaccines against it. So far, the mutated variants cannot avoid the vaccine induced antibodies and that is presently the key in controlling the new Omicron driven Covid-19 wave. Scientists are repeatedly emphasizing the importance of getting vaccinated, in order to break the perfect environment for the Coronavirus to flourish in non-vaccinated population and provide another recipe for disaster across the globe. If vaccination is taken lightly, the variant could evolve into a vaccine resistant phenotype. Everyone including children 5years and above need to get vaccinated, as soon as possible and also get the booster shot too, which remains in circulation to give immunity to the various variants of the Coronavirus!