“Why did a young call center agent get the ‘ayuda’ while my sick, elderly father did not?”
Who would have thought that we would still be talking about this in the latter half of 2021, with Metro Manila just coming out of another extension of ECQ?
When the vaccines came out last year, many thought that they would soon be lounging on a beach somewhere, able to travel without so much as a mask on their faces.
But here we are, in a Covid story, breaking daily records as the more contagious “Delta” variant racks up the number of cases.
We haven’t really heard much of names like “Delta,” “Gamma,” and “Mu” in 2020. Why are they suddenly all the rage?
The Greeks Are In
After much deliberation, in March of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) has started using Greek letters to name the different Covid variants discovered around the world. Previously, the variants took on numerical tags like “B117” and “B1351,” or were named after the places or countries where they were spotted first. We had the India variant or the South African variant, for example.
Unfortunately, the numbers proved too inscrutable, only meaningful to some in the medical community, and the “place-holders” only fueled stigma on the countries that first reported the variant. To avoid this, and to encourage everyone to freely report newly discovered variants of the virus, the WHO has proposed the use of the Greek letters in naming them.
This makes talking about them that much easier.
So as of late, we hear how the more contagious “Delta” variant is making the rounds in the country and has been found in all the different regions of the Philippines. As of this writing, “Delta” is now the country’s dominant variant, found in 83% of the cases sequenced for the month of August.
But, why are there Covid variants in the first place?
Why Covid has variants?
One year after the first lockdowns, the Philippines finds itself gripped by a variant of Covid that’s more communicable than the original strain. Why is this so?
This is due to the basic nature of viruses.
Viruses, in order to survive, must replicate and multiply. They need a host cell to do this. Viruses invade a host cell and use its mechanisms to replicate their own genetic material.
Usually, the host cells are able to copy the virus’ genetic material accurately, and you have multiple copies of the same code. Every once in a while, however, there will be errors in this copying mechanism. So, for example, if we represent genetic code in terms of a long string of letters, sometimes some letters can be switched or skipped and you end up with a genetic copy that is slightly different from the original.
These are what we call “mutations” or changes in the genetic code.
Most of the time, mutations are harmful to viruses. Most often, these mutations weaken a virus or make them less efficient.
But then, every once in a while, there are those genetic mutations that instead of harming the virus, actually makes it more potent and more harmful. These are the “variants” of Covid that we are dealing with today.
The World Health Organization currently considers four variants as “Variants of Concern.” They are the following:
Alpha (U.K.)
Beta (South Africa)
Gamma (Brazil)
Delta (India)
In addition, there are also “Variants of Interests” that the WHO is closely following. They are the:
Eta (Multiple countries)
Iota (USA)
Kappa (India)
Lambda (Peru)
Mu (Colombia)
The Flight of “Delta”
Like the American airline company of the same name, the “Delta” variant has taken off and has become dominant in the majority of countries around the world.
Research has shown that this variant is 40-60% more transmissible than the Alpha strain. A Chinese team discovered that the Delta variant has around 1000x more viral load than other types of Covid. A high viral load means a high rate of infection.
On average, in an unmitigated environment, a person positive with the Delta variant would infect 4 persons, whereas the original strain can infect only 2.5 others.
The spike proteins on the surface of the Coronavirus are what binds to human cells. This particular variant is dangerous because the mutation in its spike protein makes it more efficient in binding to human cells. In addition, it is also able to enter these cells more efficiently.
Children and teens have become more of a concern with Delta because studies suggest that, unlike previous types, this demographic is more susceptible to Delta. In a UK study, children and adults under 50 are 2.5 times more likely to be infected with the variant.
The strain has also been connected to more severe symptoms and a greater likelihood of hospitalizations.
Vaccines Vs. Variants
With so many mutations of the Coronavirus cropping up lately, we are left to wonder, “Will the vaccines, developed last year, work against these new and more potent variants?”
Viruses mutate whether we like it or not. We’ve known this long before the pandemic. The fact that variants of the original strain may rise over time is already factored into vaccine development. None of the vaccine manufacturers was surprised that new strains of the virus are circulating.
The Delta variant has been the most closely followed of all types, and studies have shown that, for the large part, vaccines have been proven effective against it. Their efficacy rates may be dulled, somewhat, but they are still very effective in warding off hospitalizations and severe cases.
As with other earlier cases, different vaccines have different efficacy rates against the Delta mutation:
Johnson & Johnson = 67%
Moderna = 66-95 %
Pfizer = 42-96%
Sinovac = 59%
The case for vaccination remains, as a new CDC study shows that unvaccinated people are 10x more likely to die or be hospitalized.
Although we have “breakthrough cases,” the number of them has been minuscule. Out of 163 million fully vaccinated individuals in the U.S., for example, only 6,5887 has resulted in death or hospitalization—less than .01%.
Covid: The Short & The Long Game
Because Covid is always mutating and changing, it will only be a matter of time before a new more potent variant comes up. We’ve already seen this happen in the Delta variant, where a new type of Covid comes along, making vaccines a little bit less effective.
It will be a race between the vaccine rollouts of all countries and the mutating virus. It is not enough that the first-world countries have their own citizens fully vaccinated. Viruses don’t respect geopolitical boundaries and so long as there are host cells, meaning, humans who can carry the virus, it can mutate and hit back even stronger.
The World Health Organization is shining a spotlight on nations, particularly Third World countries, struggling with their vaccine rollouts because the next variants of Covid could very well come from these countries with largely unvaccinated populations.
Also, there have been concerns about the waning efficacy of vaccines. Data on the Pfizer vaccine, for example, suggests that protection from severe infection wanes 6 months after the shot. So there are now talks of getting people “booster shots,” especially the elderly and the immunocompromised.
The idea of boosters is nothing new. For example, tetanus and diphtheria require booster shots every 10 years. A booster, specially formulated for Delta, would rev up the immune system against the further spread of Covid.
But ultimately, we may have to play the long game and learn to live with the virus. Covid could very well be a permanent fixture in everyone’s lives. In the United States, they give annual flu shots especially to the elderly just before the start of flu season. Covid could go that route.
Although we know so much already about Covid, there’s still so much to uncover. The virus, with its variants, has thrown curveballs every chance it gets. This behaviour would likely continue.
Meanwhile, Filipinos need to continue observing basic health protocols and get the jab as soon as it’s available for them.
Bloodworks Lab is one with the nation in battling Covid and all the other diseases besetting our country.
As the country’s premier medical laboratory, Bloodworks Labs is your one-stop-shop for all your blood test needs, offering different screening and immunological tests.
We are proud to be the first laboratory in the Philippines to offer the Anti Acetylcholine Receptor (lgG) Antibody Test and the Anti N-Methyl-D-Aspartate Receptor (Anti NMDA Receptor) Antibody Test.
Come give us a visit. Our branches are in Alabang, Katipunan, and Cebu.