La variante Omicron del SARS-CoV-2 aveva già fatto il giro del mondo prima di essere scoperta. Lo rileva la virologa Emma Hodcroft, secondo la quale le restrizioni di viaggio permettono di "guadagnare tempo", ma se la mutazione è più contagiosa, arriverà comunque.
"Quando sequenziamo il virus, vediamo sempre molte mutazioni, ma non è sempre chiaro se fanno di un virus una nuova variante", ha detto Hodcroft in un'intervista pubblicata oggi, venerdì. È solo quando appare un accumulo di mutazioni che viene lanciata una ricerca mirata su una variante, aggiunge.
Nel caso di Omicron un virologo di Londra è stato il primo a richiamare l'attenzione sul fatto che B.1.1.529 presentava un numero insolitamente alto di mutazioni nella proteina spike, ha detto l'esperta bernese. Solo allora i gruppi di ricerca hanno iniziato a indagare e uno sudafricano ha trovato un gran numero di mutazioni.
"Questo spiega perché un Paese dopo l'altro sta annunciando di avere casi di Omicron, alcuni dei quali sono precedenti a quelli del Sudafrica", spiega la virologa bernese. Questi casi mostrano "che la mutazione ha già fatto il giro del mondo prima di essere scoperta".
Daniel Koch critico sulle quarantene
Telegiornale 02.12.2021, 21:00
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