On December 14, according to the press conference on epidemic prevention and control in Guangzhou, Guangzhou found the first positive case of the Aomi Kerong strain imported from abroad. On the previous 13th, Tianjin Municipality reported that Chinese mainland the first detection of the Aomi Kerong strain. According to reports, the case is an asymptomatic infected person imported from Europe.
On the 13th local time, British Prime Minister Johnson said that there was at least 1 case of death of the Olmikron strain in the country, which is also the world's first officially confirmed related death case.
Intensive related news has caused the Aomi Kerong mutant strain to continue to attract attention. How poisonous is this mutated strain? What does it mean to have the first death in the UK? Professor Jin Dongyan, a virology expert at the University of Hong Kong, China, gave professional answers to Red Star News on related questions.
On December 14, local time, in Northwich, England, people lined up to get the new crown vaccine. Image according to Visual China
"There is no evidence that Aumechjong is a strong strain, and from the prediction point of view, its toxicity is relatively weak. There is no need to worry more about it, the COVID-19 vaccine still plays a role. Jin Dongyan said.
A "basic judgment": low mortality is not a very pathogenic strain
On the 13th local time, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson revealed that "at least one person infected with Aumechjong has been confirmed dead." He also said that the claim that the Omilon strain was "milder" should be "put aside" and that there was a need to deepen understanding of how fast it spreads. He stressed that all one can do is get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Prior to this, the British public health sector has sounded the alarm one after another, saying that the current epidemic in the UK seems to be "not optimistic", and the spread of Omi kerong in the UK has surpassed that of South Africa. Due to the rising transmission rate, the British government raised the alert level of the new crown virus on the 12th. Successive messages have strengthened the people's epidemic prevention measures. On the 13th, the vaccination booking website of the British National Health Service (NHS) has completely collapsed, and the rapid test kits have all been out of stock.
London, England, December 13, a slightly empty public place under the covid-19 pandemic.
However, expert opinions are somewhat distant from public health policies and popular responses. Anjrik Kuche, president of the South African Medical Association, believes that so far, the mutations appear to have behaved modestly and are "not worth the UK government's extreme action to deal with". Researchers at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom also said that there is no evidence that Omi kerong causes more serious conditions.
Jin Dongyan believes that in the face of the emergence of new mutant strains, it is right to call on the public to remain vigilant, and it is also right to win time by upgrading control measures to "strictly guard against death". But if you go back to the scientific data, there is no data that Omikeron is more toxic than Delta.
Jin Dongyan explained to Red Star News that from the statistics, as of December 13, there were 4713 cases of Omilon infection in the Uk, "1 death in more than 4,000 infections, this mortality rate is very low." He said that deaths caused by viral infections are frequent, and the common cold also has a fatality rate, about one in 10,000.
In addition, there is now no evidence that Omekeron is a strong strain. He told Red Star News: "From now on, the pathogenicity of Omi kerong is not strong. Of course, there are no larger, clearer data yet, but that doesn't change the basic trend that it's not a toxic, highly pathogenic strain, which is a basic judgment. ”
UK RAPID TEST KIT for COVID-19. Picture according to Xinhua News Agency
"According to the current forecast, not only will Omicron not be an exception, but its toxicity may still be significant." Jin Dongyan added.
According to a previous report by Red Star News, the latest research data released by the South African side last week is "good". William Hanecombe, director of the African Institute of Health Research in South Africa, said that "almost all the evidence at this stage points to milder symptoms of Theomicron infection".
The latest data released by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in South Africa also show that among patients hospitalized due to TheOmilon infection, the severe disease rate is about 30%, which is halved from the previous local Poderta outbreaks, and the average length of hospital stay has been shortened from 8 days to 2.8 days. At the same time, the mortality rate of hospitalized patients is only 3%, which is also a sharp drop from 20% of the previous outbreak.
Previously, some experts released data analysis and comparison of the spread speed of the British and South African Omikejong strains, believing that the British spread faster.
In addition, Jin Dongyan said that the claim that Omicron's spread in the UK has surpassed that of South Africa is also inaccurate. For technical reasons, most of the confirmed cases in South Africa have not been sequenced, so "this conclusion is a question mark from the perspective of scholars".
Non-complete evasion of vaccine antibodies Vaccines still play a role
According to foreign media reports on the 14th, Dr. Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency officer of the European office of the World Health Organization, said in an interview that according to the current data of many countries, "the spreaders of this wave of TheOmilon epidemic are young, healthy and vaccinated people."
Data released by Denmark on the 12th showed that 70% of the 3437 cases of Aumicron were under the age of 40. The European Centre for Disease Control also said that in the early cases of Aumicron, 72% of patients were under the age of 40. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also show that of the 43 infections to date, most are under the age of 40, and nearly 80 percent of patients are fully vaccinated.
But multiple experts say that while there is evidence that Omicron can evade vaccine antibodies, there is no need to panic in the face of a strain of covid-19 that "so far seems mild." Peter Collinion, an infectious disease specialist at the Australian National University, said in an interview that "the spread of Omikeron exceeds that of Delta, but the consequences will not exceed those of Delta." ”
Infographic.
Jin Dongyan also pointed out that this strain does have immune escape, but it is not a complete escape. He pointed out that according to the existing preliminary research data, "if Modena or Pfizer (new crown vaccine) has three injections, basically it can still prevent it, even infection can be prevented, if it is given two injections, it can still prevent (new crown) severe disease." He further explains that even if immunity is not very complete, it can further reduce the clinical manifestations of viral infection, "which is also found from our limited (Omilon) cases, these patients are positive, and soon the antibodies come out." ”
And what does that mean? First of all, a very high antibody means that there will be no symptoms. Second, when the antibody is very high, the virus titer will also decrease, so in fact, the transmission period and transmission window of the virus become very short and narrow. "It's such a narrow window, so overall its risk is reduced, not raised." Jin Dongyan told Red Star News. Therefore, in such a situation, he did not see the need to have more concerns about Omikeron.
At the same time, he also stressed the need for COVID-19 vaccination, because "the examples seen so far also show that the original vaccine still plays a certain role, otherwise it is impossible to have antibodies so quickly, and the comprehensive antibodies are so high."
More information on deaths in the UK has not been disclosed Experts: Create unnecessary panic
According to foreign media reports on the 13th, the British government has not disclosed more details of the above death cases. A spokesman for the British prime minister declined to disclose the situation on grounds of "patient confidentiality" but said more details could be made public in the UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) weekend report. At present, UKHSA has only revealed that the deceased was "diagnosed with Omikerong in the hospital".
Officials from the country's ministry of health said that as of the 13th, 10 people had been hospitalized for infection with Omikerong. The UKHSA confirmed that the hospitalized patients were between the ages of 18-85 and that most had been given two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, but declined to say whether anyone had already received a booster.
For the "ambiguous" rhetoric, British experts believe that the government should release more details, such as the age of the death case, the vaccination status, whether it belongs to the vulnerable group, whether there are health problems before, and whether the Omilon strain is the main cause of its death, etc., to avoid "unnecessary panic".
"Was he hospitalized for COVID-19 or was he hospitalized because he was hit by a bus? Did he get a booster injection? Is it the elderly? These nuances are critical, but we don't get the right information. British medical professor Carol Scola asked. In his view, given the current information, there is no reason for people to panic, but the government should calm the fear, not exacerbate it. "Only by publishing more relevant details can people be reassured."
Red Star News reporter Xu Huan
Edited by Zhang Xun
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