Not very reassuring news arrives from the United States regarding the Coronavirus. In fact, there would be a new variant, KP.2, found in 24.9% of infections. Which, as stated by American scientists, “has a mutation in the Spike protein (which the virus uses to attach to cells), and the latter does not seem to respond to updated versions of vaccines”. All this could herald a new wave of infections in the summer, in the United States but also in Europe, considering the speed with which the variant manages to spread.
The JN.1
The dominant variant globally at the moment is JN.1, which caused a surge in infections earlier this year. From it, he writes Republic, derives a family of variants, nicknamed FLiRT: an acronym between the initials of the mutations, which are better able to evade the immune protection of vaccines than JN.1. The group also includes the KP.2 variant. This does not mean that WHO refrains from recommending vaccination, but because the most recent booster was based on an older strain, XBB.1.5, it recommended basing future formulations on the JN.1 strain.
«Immunity has waned»
Thomas A. Russo, head of the department of Infectious Diseases at the Jacobs School of Medicine at the University at Buffalo, explained: «We have a population in which immunity to the virus has waned, and this increases collective vulnerability to new SarsCoV2 infections. If I look into my crystal ball I would say that, considering the various factors at play with the new mutation, we will probably have a new wave next summer, or in any case an increase in cases and hospitalizations.” The epidemiologist Pier Luigi Lopalco took things further by explaining that “a new summer wave cannot be ruled out” in Italy too.
«We don’t stop monitoring»
«In the world, at all times, the SARS-CoV-2 virus tries to spread, and therefore to overcome the population’s immunity by causing new variants to emerge – explained Lopalco -. If a variant actually emerges in any area of the planet and is very efficient, it supplants the previous one. The virus has taken on a more or less seasonal dimension, as happens with the normal flu, especially in autumn-winter. Only when a particularly efficient variant emerges could it transform into a summer “wave”. The epidemiologist concludes by noting that «KP.2, currently growing in the United States, could certainly also affect Italy, but in terms of symptoms I don’t think it can have a heavier impact than seasonal flu: we won’t see the Pronto full rescue. Despite this, however, we do not stop monitoring.”
