Covid, new variant in Vietnam: what we know so far

From Vietnam, the alarm has come for a new Covid variant, which combines characteristics of the Indian and English ones. This was stated by the Vietnamese Minister of Health, Nguyen Thanh Long, explaining that the new variant, “ a mix between the Indian and the British ”, has the main characteristic of spreading rapidly through the air and being much more transmissible. compared to the previous ones. “More specifically, this is the Indian variant with mutations that originally belonged to the UK variant,” the Vietnamese minister said. The Southeast Asian country has so far recorded 6,396 coronavirus cases and 47 deaths from complications. The new variant would be at the origin of the rapid spread of Covid-19 since the end of April, when 3,600 people were infected in 31 of the 63 cities. “A destiny is that of having to deal with variants” of the pandemic coronavirus, he told the Adnkronos Health Fabrizio Pregliasco, virologist at the State University of Milan. This ‘mix’ variant “casts some shadow even compared to what we are observing in England, a speed of ascent of the curve”. For now, however, no alarmism: “At the moment this variant it is important to have identified it, to have acquired the capacity “. The fact that the pathogen responsible for Covid-19 continues to present itself in ever new forms, according to the virologist” must give us There is only one thing: we continue on this highway that we hope will be directed towards a new normal, pressing ‘at the tablet’ on the accelerator of the vaccinations, but controlling the speed in the reopening. Progression and gradualness “, reiterated Pregliasco.” There will always be variations. The more we look for them, the more we will find them “. And the new variant of Vietnam that appears as a mix between the Indian and the British” is not the first nor will it be the last. We have to continue with what we are doing. We have vaccines that also work well with variants and we need to be vigilant. These are mutants that come from abroad, but there is nothing different we need to do. It is also time to stop that every time you find a variant from a hidden part of the world it becomes the first news. It looks like a continuous wolf, wolf. But then people end up not listening “said Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino hospital in Genoa and member of the Covid-19 crisis unit of Liguria.” It is right to be vigilant – said the expert at Adnkronos Health – But these topics must go back to being scientific and treated by experts. It is time to stop with the bar talk, as if we were talking about football teams and the variants were footballers who come from abroad. It is time to put an end to variant terrorism. Also because every time we have done it we have been wrong. And also on this new variant, therefore, I would avoid doing it “. Instead, we must have” common sense, even in the rules that are given, and I have seen little of it so far. Scientists come down from the moon and come to earth. If it is said that in the restaurant between a bite and the other you have to wear a mask – observed the infectious disease specialist – the risk is that no one will respect these rules. Instead, it is necessary to make prescriptions that can be respected and followed. We should reset everything and start again with a simple system of rules. Or we risk tangling up on ourselves and becoming the country that will come out of the pandemic later. So, let’s get out of the logic of decrees, obligations and prohibitions and aim to make people aware. We must understand that this is a new phase “, concluded Bassetti.