Until recently, the Indian strain of the delta coronavirus was considered the most dangerous. And recently in the UK and Israel, a delta mutation, AY.4.2, was found, which is 10-15 percent more infectious than its progenitor.
Immunologist Nikolai Kryuchkov says that mutations are natural evolutionary processes. Humanity is trying to survive for itself, the virus for itself.
“His appearance was expected,” says Nikolai Kryuchkov to mk.ru. – We see that AY.4.2 is 15% more infectious than the “delta” itself. But this is several times less than the difference that the delta had with the post-Wuhan variant.
That is, we can say that the virus begins to reduce its infectivity. New strains will still appear, but they will not dramatically exceed the indicators of the previous form.
The first Wuhan covid had an index of contagiousness (this property of infectious diseases transmitted from sick people to healthy people) from 2 to 6. Delta received an indicator of 8.
The doctor believes that the maximum mutation limit is 10-11.
– There is no reason to believe that the new virus will replace the “delta”. Although it is still considered the most contagious form, the “delta” is stronger. With each new mutation, it will be more difficult for covid to bypass immunity and ultimately it will become softer for the population, the doctor says.
In turn, the director of the Scientific and Clinical Center for Precision and Regenerative Medicine of the Institute of Fundamental Medicine and Biology of Kazan Federal University, Albert Rizvanov, noted that AY.4.2 will be less infectious and this is due to its form.
“If we judge by the fact that it has mutations in the spike protein, then it is more associated with infectiousness, and not with the severity of the infection,” the scientist told Izvestia.
