Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

India has battered for some considerable time from the chaos that dared to engulfed the entire world: Coronavirus.

This tiny virus, that came out of the gallows because of the invalid interference by humans in its own ecosystem, though indirectly, has successfully wiped out nearly 4.69 lacs alone in India.

Nature has its secret ways of planned retaliation and humans, being so busy in their timid lives, become an easy bait.

At times, we try harder in order to survive, because that is what we do best. To save ourselves from the extremities of these deadly souls and aftermath of an infection, we created vaccines.

India remained a prominent harbinger of these life-serving vaccines. Though the distribution and availability of vaccines were assured, healthcare and policy making experts remained cautious of the developments on ground.

In one of the presentations by the Economic Research Department, titled ‘Thwarting the Second Wave”, it was clarified and stressed upon how the rapid Vaccination ought to be the primary tool and not Lockdown for solving the crisis.

The world intellectuals still remain divided on this matter.

Omicron: The new virus and the new threats

World Health Organization (WHO) in a special meeting, has declared B.1.1.529 termed as Omicron, exhibiting the very strangest of mutations, as the ‘variant of concern’.

Though we have relatively less data about it and hope it fizzles out, it has been found to be more infectious than its predecessors.

It will consequently be a blow to the social, economic, cultural and even psychological stability of the world citizens.

Why there are different strains? What makes a strain more effective in terms of taking over the host?

When any cell replicated and is performing reproduction, it involves the participation of two set of chromosomes, simply the codes holding our characteristics.

While the cell mechanism undertakes copying, mistakes can happen, which leads to different recombination and consequently there are certain changes found in the cell.

This change can be called a mutation and that is what helps a specie to evolve, i.e., it can change any feature of the virus, say transmission capability, severity etc.

Further, during the transmission of viruses from one person to another, there may form a few variants those will become better at entering cells or rather replicate themselves faster than the others.

And hence the better ones take over the body easily.

And with every such invasion on another host’s body, there is a fair chance of creation of a more fit variant, the one which can spread easily or directly into the target organs etc.

In short, more the rate of transmission, abundant will be the opportunities provided for mutation of a viral vector.

And this replication becomes easy to attain if it happens in a person with a compromised immune system.

Current vaccines and the new variant:

Our current vaccines are capable of overpowering the known Covid variants like Delta. This means that when any such variant attacks our body, the immune system recognizes it because of the prior communication with the spike protein, injected through vaccines.

This helps the human body to develop resistance to the same entity and body can brace well for the next invasion.

But just to add to our concern, a few variants like Lambda, Beta (known to escape well), Gamma, Mu have showcased a tendency to evade the immunity derived from vaccinations.

This is troublesome as the body will not be able to recognize and fight from the earlier rendezvous.

With even more cases, it will come to fore, in which category the new variant Omicron, fits in.

Why does the low vaccine coverage feel like a reason for the birth of Omicron?

However, in respect with India, some experts are attributing this emergence of a new variant as a possible result of lower levels of vaccine coverage in the developing world.

There are reasons for the same.

The low vaccine coverage, creates an inability to reach a decent herd immunity. This leads to an increased risk of new variants simply by letting the transmission prevail and persist within a community.

When this happens, the high viral replication from one person to another provides greater room for the virus to mutate effectively.

Viruses have been smartest of beings since the impregnation of Earth to cater to life.

They have survived it all, the ice age, the asteroid hit, the climate change and will still continue to do so, that too either being dominant in hosts or just dormant enough to survive.

In case the vaccinations would have been enough, there would have been lesser chances of mutation and formation of those viruses capable enough to ditch our well-fed immune systems.

Coupled with stringent global surveillance and new updated vaccines for a long-term control of the virus, at least this virus would have stayed at bay, merely reduced to the likes of common flu.

This could have been achieved in better prospects through a considerable increase in supplies, ensuring equitable and inclusive distribution apart from the most important challenge: spreading awareness and shattering vaccine hesitancy and misinformation.

Taking South African case to understand:

The new variant replicating underground, could only be uncovered by engaging the much reliable and strenuous viral genomic sequencing efforts undertaken by South African scientists.

The entire region of southern African continent struggled with lower vaccine coverage, which many experts suggest, happened because of the global inequities in the COVID vaccines’ supply.

But one cannot deny or neglect the extensive mutation strategy exhibited by Omicron.

With ease in travelling and flourishing economies, the global community remains highly interconnected. Wherein the countries will find it extremely difficult to contain their citizens safely, especially after a brief relief since lockdowns.

One can wonder how the virus prepared a secret revenge when the world population was busy with ‘revenge tourism’.

Another pandemic threat has already breached our walls, the fight is onto the authorities to remember our past lessons just like our bodies are expected to remember their own lessons to fight well.

This cannot happen without greater international cooperation that remains highly accessible to every country, tiny or weak, friend or foe.

One shall remind ourselves: United we stand, divided we fall!

By Alaina Ali Beg

I am a lover of all arts and therefore can dream myself in all places where the World takes me. I am an avid animal lover and firmly believes that Nature is the true sorcerer.

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