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Alejandra Yañez | THE RIDER
A UTRGV official says increasing the number of people who get vaccinated against COVID-19 would decrease the possibility of a new mutation that would be resistant to the vaccine.
Dr. Michael Dobbs, vice dean of Clinical Affairs for the UTRGV School of Medicine and chief medical officer for UT Health RGV, also explained how these new variants came to be.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the new strain SARS-CoV-2, B.1.1.7, arrived in the U.S. Dec. 29 from the United Kingdom and has been detected in 12 states.
Asked what this new variant consists of and how it is different from the original COVID-19 strain, Dobbs replied, “The variants that are popping up right now, they seem to be more contagious and they are mutations that affect the spike protein to make it stick to cells better. That’s why it’s more contagious.”
He said experts expect more new variants because viruses, such as COVID-19, mutate at rapid rates to stay alive when they are out in the public.
“So, the more people get vaccinated, the less likely that we would get a mutation that would make the virus resistant to vaccination,” Dobbs said.
Besides the variant detected in the United Kingdom, others have mutated in Brazil and Columbus, Ohio, according to Dobbs.
Asked what the common misconceptions are about these variants, Dobbs replied, “That the variants are more deadly. Another misconception I’ve seen is that the vaccine doesn’t work on the variants.”
He said the new variants seem to be more contagious but not more harmful and that both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines appear to work against the new variants.
Asked if he anticipates the new strain to spread to the Rio Grande Valley, Dobbs replied that it is possible the variant is already here.
“It’s a race to get people vaccinated and, at the same time, continue to do aggressive social distancing and also get tested if you have symptoms or exposure,” he said.
Dobbs said the university is not changing any protocols at the moment to accommodate the new variant.
“The most important thing, though, is that people need to get vaccinated so these variants stop showing up,” he said. “Once everybody gets vaccinated, then it won’t be as likely to show up because the virus won’t be as likely to mutate to new variants because it just won’t be circulating in the population. It’s kind of a race against the virus to get people vaccinated.”
Asked if the tests administered by the university would be able to detect the new variant, Dobbs replied that the routine polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test for COVID-19 would not identify a positive test as a variant. It would merely identify the sample as positive.
With this new variant being highly transmissible, prevention is even more important.
“There are two things, basically, that we can do,” Dobbs said. “One is get more vaccines in people’s arms faster, and the second is continue aggressive social-distancing measures, including restrictions on bars and other gatherings, as well as wearing masks. So, it’s still the same as what we’ve been doing. It’s just trying not to loosen those restrictions. Now isn’t the time.”
