Infectious disease expert from the U.S. warns Australia about a NEW variant of Covid that’s ‘the most mutative’ – as he tells Karl Stefanovic ‘unless you are triple-vaxxed’ you’re not protected
A new highly contagious variant of Covid-19 is the most mutant of all the strains and will require three doses of vaccine to be protected against it, an infectious diseases expert has warned.
Scientists say the C.1.2 strain in South Africa has a mutation rate of 41.8 mutations per year, almost double the current global mutation rate seen in any other variant of concern so far.
The strain was first identified by scientists in South Africa in May and has since been found in England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, Portugal Switzerland and even New Zealand.
Not a lot is known about C.1.2, which is yet to make its way to Australia, which has already been devastated by the Delta strain with millions currently in lockdown.
But this new strain has world leading experts on edge, including Dr Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist and health economist and a Senior Fellow at the Federation of American Scientists in Washington DC.
Dr Eric Feigl-Ding (pictured right) warned the C.1.2 varint from South Africa is mutating a lot faster than the other strains of Covid
‘It’s got lots of troubling mutations and it’s the most mutative of all variants,’ he told the Today show on Wednesday.
‘It’s the most genetically distanced from the Wuhan 1.0 virus. Whether or not it’s the next big thing, it’s not necessarily that, it’s the fact that the virus is mutating so much faster than we expected.
He added future variants will need to be updated much faster.
‘We can’t just keeping boosting the vaccines,’ Dr Feigl-Ding said.
‘We have to basically stop the transmission worldwide because the more bodies we give the virus, the more practice chances the virus will eventually adapt and become even more evasive or contagious,’
‘He also warned two doses of the vaccine may not be enough with Israel already introducing third booster shots.’
‘Unless you’re triple vaxxed, you’re not considered fully vaxed. And that approach as much as it sucks, it is the reality that with the face of these new variants,’ he said.
‘Right now vaccines do work, but obviously the work against hospitalisations and deaths really well.
Australians may need to be triple-vaxxed about the latest strain (pictured Sydneysiders and police outside a vaccination hub)
‘But for just casual breakthrough mild infections, with Delta it’s taught us that there’s a lot more breakthroughs than we know and after six months it does tend to wane a little bit.
‘This is why the sooner we end it, the sooner we can stop dealing with these upgrade software upgrade patches that we have do with the vaccine.
More to come.