How Do Coronavirus Variants Work?

Mutations of the virus that causes COVID-19, called variants, can be even more dangerous than the original. Learn about delta and other SARS-CoV-2 variants in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://health.howstuffworks.com/diseases-conditions/infectious/delta-variant-coronavirus-news.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Hey brain Stuff Lauren bogebom here. There have been multiple
coronavirus variants circulating around the globe since COVID nineteen first
emerged as a threat some eighteen months ago. The latest
one to create concern is the Delta variant, first detected

(00:22):
in December of Considered around sixty more transmissible than the
already highly infectious Alpha variant, Delta has spread to at
least eighty countries, including the United States, and is now
the UK's most dominant strain, responsible for n of new cases.
Designated by the World Health Organization or WHO as a

(00:44):
Global Variant of Concern, Delta is responsible for the second
deadly wave of infections that have decimated India, a country
that on June nine reached a world record daily high
of more than six thousand deaths in one day. So
let's talk about how these variants work. The novel coronavirus disease,

(01:06):
or COVID nineteen, is caused by a single species of
virus known as SARS cove two. When the original virus,
also called normal or wild type, replicates or copies itself,
the sequence of its molecules called nucleotides, sometimes changes from
the original virus. These changes are called mutations. Most of

(01:28):
the time these variations make the virus weaker, but sometimes
they can make the virus stronger, more contagious, or more
resistant to the actions of our immune systems. These variations
of the wild type virus or variance catch the eye
of health officials in the global SARS cove To Laboratory
network at the WHOSE Virus Evolution Working Group. The group

(01:51):
is tasked with quickly detecting variants and assessing their possible impact.
A Delta is the fourth global variant of concern that
WHO has ideaified since the pandemic began. The three others, alpha,
beta and gamma were first identified in the United Kingdom,
South Africa, and Brazil, respectively. Delta was first identified in India.

(02:12):
The WHO began naming these coronavirus variants after letters of
the Greek alphabet to simplify the scientific names, which I
have not included here because their long chains of letters
and numbers, and also to avoid stigmatizing the countries from
where the new strains originate. The delta variant has become
a variant of concern due to some mutations in its

(02:33):
spike protein, which formed the spiky looking protrusions on the
surface of the virus, which inspired the name coronavirus to
start with, and which in our bodies penetrate our cells
and cause infection. At least four different mutations in the
delta variant have been associated with faster spread and or
higher infectivity based on previous variants with similar mutations, and

(02:56):
it also seems to give people different symptoms. Oh. With
the original wild coronavirus, you can expect to have symptoms
including fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue,
muscle or body aches, a loss of taste or smell,
nausea or vomiting or diarrhea. However, the Delta variant appears

(03:17):
to be slightly different. Data gathered from the UK's ZOE
covid Symptoms study app showed the people in the UK
described headaches, sore throats, running noses, and fever to be
the most prevalent symptoms. Blood clots are also a concerning
complication of COVID nineteen, but a cardiologist in Mumbai, India

(03:37):
told Bloomberg that he's seen a surprising number and type
of blood clots in recent COVID nineteen patients across age
groups with no past history of abnormal clotting, and that
he and his colleagues suspect it's a result of the
delta variant. However, it is important to note that these
observations are anecdotal and not based on scientific research. At

(03:58):
this time, the m RNA vaccines are proving their worth
in countries where shots are more readily available. India, although
home to the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, is struggling with
a major internal shortage of shots. A little more than
ten percent of the country's population has received just one vaccine.

(04:20):
In the United States, as of late June, just over half,
or fifty three point oh three percent of the U
S population was fully vaccinated, and both new cases of
COVID nineteen and related deaths have been trending downward. But
in a White House COVID nineteen Response Team press briefing
on June twenty second, doctor Anthony Faucci, chief Medical Adviser

(04:41):
to the President, said cases of the delta variant have
doubled in about two weeks. In early May, the delta
variant accounted for just one point two percent of cases,
he said, and now it accounts for twenty point six percent.
He said that the US seems to be following the
same pattern as the uk A, where the delta variant
became dominant very quickly and now makes up of cases there.

(05:07):
The dominant strain in the US is currently the alpha variant,
but Fauci warned that delta could soon become the dominant
strain in the US as well, and so that it's
quote currently the greatest threat in the US to our
attempt to eliminate COVID nineteen one age group where cases
are climbing the most is among twelve to twenty year olds.

(05:28):
One reason maybe because this age group has been among
the last to get vaccinated. For the article, this episode
is based on how Stuff Work spoke with Dr Paul Getford,
a professor of medicine at the University of Alabama in
Birmingham and an expert in vaccine design. He said, Initially,
we try to vaccinate our older population, and rightfully so,

(05:48):
and we're seeing the benefits of that in decreased hospitalizations.
But now we're seeing infections that are mainly in younger people,
and we're focusing on the fact that it's not a
completely benign infection. In younger people, they're not as at risk,
but they have problems too with this, and some of
them get really, really sick. It's too early to say

(06:10):
for sure whether approved COVID nineteen vaccines protect against the
delta variant, but early data is promising. According to a
preprint study conducted in the UK, one dose of the
two dose Fiser vaccine provided about thirty three percent protection
against the delta variant. Two doses were eight eight percent effective.

(06:30):
No data has been published to date on the efficacy
of the other two vaccines approved by the Food and
Drug Administration or f d A for emergency use in
the US, being the two shot Maderna vaccine or the
one shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine against the delta variant,
but Fauci said in that June twenty second press briefing
that he believes in the vaccines efficacy quote the effectiveness

(06:53):
of the vaccines in this case, two weeks after the
second dose of Fiser was percent effective against the delta
and nine effective against the alpha. When you're dealing with
symptomatic disease, we have the tools, so let's use them.
And crush the outbreak. However, the CDC notes that the
delta variant might be able to avoid the antibodies that

(07:14):
our bodies produce after a vaccination or a coronavirus infection,
and for those who do get infected, the monoclonal antibody
treatments or treatments for those who have COVID nineteen might
be less effective against the delta variant. And that's scary
because a study published on June fourteenth in the science
journal The Lancet found that those infected by the delta

(07:36):
variant were about twice as likely to be hospitalized than
those infected by the alpha variant. Both Madernas and VISORS
COVID vaccines are made using mr NA technology. Previous studies
have shown that a full double dose of Visors or
Madernas vaccine provides and ent protection against the original virus, respectively.

(07:59):
Johnson Johnson's one shot vaccine, which uses a modified ADA
NO virus, was found seventy effective against the wild type virus.
Giptford said, these vaccines are remarkable. Even in older adults,
it works really really well, which is unusual for most
any vaccine that we have, So that's just remarkable. Today's

(08:24):
episode is based on the article Delta variant Maybe the
Greatest spread Eliminating COVID nineteen on how stuffworks dot Com,
written by Jennifer Walker. Journey brain Stuff is production of
iHeart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com and
is produced by Tyler Clang. The four more podcasts from
my heart Radio visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.