Is it true that the Omiljun strain carries the cold virus gene, so it spreads quickly but the symptoms are mild.

True points:

At present, the data on Omikejong is still in the early days of collection, most of the cases are concentrated in South Africa, and how fast it spreads and how pathogenic it is, more data are needed to draw conclusive conclusions.

Verifier: Ph.D. in Genetics, Popular Science Author, Practitioner of New Drug Research and Development

Half a month has passed since South Africa first reported the Omicron virus strain, during this time, there are many "new features" about TheOmilon have been reported, including "The Omikeron contains cold virus genes" and "The Omikeron spreads quickly but the symptoms are very mild" and so on.

First, Omi Kerong spreads quickly but the symptoms are very mild? The situation shown in early times is not conclusive

On December 8, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference in Geneva that new data from South Africa showed an increased risk of reinfection in Omilon. Tedros also said there was also evidence that Omicron caused milder symptoms of the disease than Delta. As soon as the WHO news came out, the saying that "Omi kerong spreads quickly but the symptoms are very mild" quickly spread on the Internet.

In fact, the current data on Omikejong is still in the early days of collection, and most of the cases are concentrated in South Africa, which is not suitable for such a conclusion. Tedros also stressed that more data is needed to draw conclusive conclusions, new data is emerging every day, and scientists need time to complete the study and interpret the results, not to jump to conclusions.

It does seem that the speed of transmission of Omikeron is not slow at present, but there is not enough quantitative data to say how fast it can spread, and it is not certain whether the Delta strain is faster or slower than it is. The actual transmission rate of a mutant strain can only be judged by tracking the growth trend of cases over a period of time and its dynamic relationship with other mutant strains. At present, Omiljung has only become the mainstream mutant strain in South Africa - the average daily increase in South Africa has increased sharply from an average of a few hundred cases in the seven days before mid-November to a few thousand cases in late November and early December, coupled with the corresponding high positive detection rate, which means that the local infection rate is high, and it is likely that there is an undertesting situation. But this is after all a short period of tracking, and more research is needed to accurately determine the speed of Omicron's spread. In particular, some time before the report of the Olmiqueron strain, the outbreak in Delta, South Africa, was nearing its end, and the "rise" of Thermojong there seemed to replace Delta, so it is inaccurate for some to infer that it is many times faster than Delta. It cannot be ruled out that Delta has ended and Omicron fills the gap. The Dynamics of the two strains would be more accurate in judging the actual speed of transmission of Themikeron in Delta, where the dynamics of the two strains are now detected in the European and American countries, where Delta is still dominant.

The severity of the illness caused by Omikejong is now also unsustainable. According to current reports, a number of scientists and doctors in South Africa believe that the symptoms caused by the Olmiquejung strain are not as serious as the Delta strain, and William Hanecombe, director of the African Health Research Institute in South Africa, recently said that "at this stage, almost all the evidence points to the mild symptoms of the Omicron infection", in addition, there is also a South African doctor Angeli Kuche on the Internet that the symptoms of the Omicron infection are mild. However, we should note that it is still the preliminary stage of the collection of the Case of Omikeron, and the current case situation cannot be used to infer the general law, and the severe disease data itself lags behind the infection. In addition, the entire population structure of Africa, including South Africa, is relatively young, and the current cases of Omikejong are mainly young people, and the situation of these people cannot be simply inferred from the situation of other groups, nor can it be pushed to countries with a high proportion of elderly populations.

Second, the Omiljun strain contains a cold virus gene to indicate that its symptoms are similar to those of a cold? Pure misleading

Due to the sudden appearance of Omi kerong and the large number of mutations, many people are speculating about how these mutations evolved. Recently, there is also a statement that has attracted attention is that "the Omilon strain carries the gene of the cold virus", and some people also think that it is precisely for this reason that the Omilon will be close to the cold in terms of transmission speed and pathogenicity.

In fact, these statements are also misleading. The so-called "cold virus gene" is only aimed at a mutation site on the Omilon - at the amino acid position 214 of the spike protein. Compared to the original strain, Omikeron has three amino acid inserts of EPE. Some researchers in the United States have compared the genome sequence and proposed that the insertion of these three amino acids may come from a coronavirus HCoV-22 that causes the common cold.

Note that this is only a theoretical speculation of a research group and has not been confirmed. Even if it is confirmed that genetic recombination is entirely possible if some different viruses infect the same individual, we cannot take it for granted that the genetically recombined virus will inevitably "converge" in terms of viral characteristics.

The function of EPE insertion is not clear now, and even with this mutation, Omiljunn still carries the new crown spike protein gene, because this is only three amino acids appearing on the spike protein with a total length of nearly a thousand amino acids, and it cannot be said that there is a cold virus gene, only a mutation.

In essence, Omiqueron is still a new coronavirus, and conventional protection methods are still effective. As for how fast it spreads, how pathogenic it is, it will take time to reach a final conclusion, and we don't have to panic too much.

This article was edited by Ambergchen

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