Covid, risk of new variables emerging with UK reopening? What the scientists say

Since last July 19, most of the restrictions imposed on Covid from United kingdom It was placed in the attic. a step “Irreversible», as defined by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which not only provides for the almost complete reopening of activities, but also the abandonment of those recommendations that have proven key to slowing infection in the winter months, such as social distancing and the use of masks.

The turning point, aimed at strengthening Britain’s economic fundamentals, already weakened by the fallout from Brexit, which was legitimized (this is, at least, the line of Johnson and the Conservatives) by the country’s vaccination rate (70.3% of the population is partially protected, 57.5% received both doses), however, it does not meet the interest of the scientific community, according to which the UK could soon become an incubator new variables.

UK, new variants alert from scientists

In detail, it consists of 1200 world The rally that openly (and publicly) criticized the British government. Under the lens the consequences of dismantling the most important restrictions At a historical point in which the virus – which has mutated in its most contagious form, known as Indian or Delta – continues to spread at a rapid pace, although data on new infections has been published by Downing Street – but it is publicly defined”mysteriousBy Kings College Epidemiologist Team Spector It indicates a slowdown.

«If I wanted to engineer a massive experiment to create a new virus, the kind that could overcome the vaccine barrier, I would do what the UK is doing.The attack of the American virologist Michael Haseltine, president of ACCESS Health International. “Half of the vaccinated population is in the midst of a pandemic, allowing the virus to learn how to bypass the vaccine. That’s what I would do, and the rest of the world is understandably worried».

International Travel Hub

but second Christina BagelDirector of the Clinical Operations Research Unit at University College London, London.High-income countries (EU, US and Canada) are all in the same situation, and a vaccine-resistant variant can appear anywhereThen there is the knot Resumption of international travel, of which the UK is a global hub, which is why any variable that appears outside the Channel will end up spreading quickly across the planet.