First of all, we need to know what are those variants
Since the World knew there was a pandemic, caused by a virus in 2019 many things changed. Including the virus itself, as those are incredibly small infectious agents that mutate very fastly. They replicate inside cells and adapt to survive better in that environment. So considering this, there are thousands of variants that can be considered a type of evolution of the first virus discovered. So the most well-known that are being currently discussed in the media, are kinds of variants that seem to be spreading very quickly. They are also showing a potential to contaminate more people and are also circulating around the world.
There are other variants considered important and spreading in the World
Current variants that are also spreading and concerning scientists are:
- The variant alpha also known as B.1.1.7, was identified in the UK firstly, but has now been confirmed to have infected people in more than 50 countries.
- There is another variant called beta, identified as B.1.351, firstly present in South Africa and now spread to more than 20 countries all over the World.
- The gama variant is known scientifically as P.1, which first appeared here in Brazil. Now it is spread around more than 10 countries but is being very strictly monitored.
It is important to be aware and continue to take the protective measures indicated by the Health Professionals, even after taking vaccinations. We will discuss the topic of protection further in this article, but avoiding to talk too much about the variants. A good indication, in this article, is that we will focus on the efficacy of the current vaccines available even against the new variants. So we will analyze what many specialists say and why it would be a good point to take the vaccine even if this virus is mutating so fast.
Are the variants more dangerous than the virus that originated in Wuhan?
The clear answer is yes, as the virus mutates it gets better at infecting human cells and this might indicate more serious cases of the disease. Of course, with more difficulty of treatment for the Health Professionals and also for the immune system of our bodies. But why would the vaccine be important even if it won’t completely protect against so many possible mutations? The most important thing to understand here is that our bodies didn’t have any immunity against the coronavirus. When a virus enters your body, our immunity fights it as a threat for our cells and this is basically why we are capable of recovering from normal flu without too much worry. Since we are kids, our bodies develop a very sophisticated way to recognize the danger. And then, our defensive cells are normally able to kill and help the body to eliminate the pathogens.
The most important advantage of the vaccine
When this virus appeared, new and unrecognized it was attacking our body without this important capacity of recognizing this risk. So when the body, let’s say, in this manner, started fighting the disease there was a load of virus too high and already damaging important organs in the body. This is what was creating the severe cases of covid-19 and the collapse of the Health System all over the world. So the vaccine helps the body to identify this new genome that is a threat to our health and fight. And this works even with the variants, even if you get the disease your body already has a way to identify that this kind of virus is a danger and needs to start to fight it as soon as possible. And that is why vaccines can prevent the evolution of the cases to a level of severity that makes people need respirators or Intensive Care.
Conclusion
In this article, we are discussing the effectiveness of vaccines. Even if you need to continue taking preventive measures after vaccination, it might help you preventing and fighting this new disease. did you like our latest post? Don’t forget to follow us on our LinkedIn page for more interesting worldly news!
References
The New England Journal of Medicine. Effectiveness of Covid-19 Vaccines against the B.1.617.2 (Delta) Variant. Available at: <https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2108891>.
Yale Medicine. 5 Things To Know About the Delta Variant. Available at: <https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/5-things-to-know-delta-variant-covid>.
