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Covid mutants: What are the risks?

Could vaccine resistant coronavirus variants push back global recovery?

A year into the Covid crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel this week announced her country was facing what amounts to 鈥榓 new pandemic鈥. 鈥淭he mutation from Great Britain has taken over,鈥 she warned. 鈥淚t is clearly more lethal, more contagious, and contagious longer.鈥 Even in countries where attempts to vaccinate the population are continuing at pace, the threat from mutant variants that have shown a greater ability than the original pathogen to evade vaccines is threatening any recovery. The US Centers for Disease Control this week warned that variants now dominate cases in California, and that increased air travel for spring break - combined with a rise in the number of states easing mask and social distancing mandates - may result in another surge. The UK hopes to curb the spread of variants as part of its roadmap to reopening, but in the last week an adviser to Boris Johnson鈥檚 government warned that any return to international travel was 鈥渦nlikely鈥 given the threat new mutations pose. So how long will Covid variants rule our lives and what can be done to curb their influence? Paul Henley is joined by a panel of experts.

Available now

53 minutes

Last on

Sat 27 Mar 2021 04:06GMT

Contributors

贰尘尘补听贬辞诲肠谤辞蹿迟听- Molecular epidemiologist,聽University of Bern; co-developer,聽Nextstrain聽

Sarah Caddy - Clinical Research Fellow in Viral Immunology,聽University of Cambridge聽聽

Syra Madad - Pathogen preparedness expert and infectious disease epidemiologist聽

贵别补迟耻谤颈苍驳:听

Jonathan Li -聽Harvard Medical School, and Brigham and Women鈥檚 Hospital, Boston聽

Picture

A lab technician in Mexico performs a test聽to investigate if a new strain of the coronavirus聽is circulating聽in the state of Jalisco.聽Credit: REUTERS/Fernando Carranza.

Broadcasts

  • Fri 26 Mar 2021 10:06GMT
  • Sat 27 Mar 2021 00:06GMT
  • Sat 27 Mar 2021 04:06GMT

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