INP
\nISLAMABAD
\nAmid the alarming revelation that the latest coronavirus variant has reached Karachi, Dr Atta-ur-Rehman stressed that vaccine would have to be developed at local level to fight the pandemic on Thursday. Dr Rehman, who is the chairperson of the prime minister\u2019s national task force on science and technology, noted that the new variant could affect children more \u2013 unlike the previous trend. Over 200 companies were currently involved in the process of developing a vaccine that could control the variant, he added.<\/p>\n
Separately, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry in a tweet said importing the coronavirus vaccine was a complicated issue<\/p>\n
Noting that vaccine being safe is important than the price, he said there would be no compromise on quality. The first meeting of the federal cabinet committee was held yesterday with a target of quality vaccine\u2019s availability at a reasonable rate, Fawad said.<\/p>\n
Discussing the new coronavirus strain B.1.1.7, The Guardian in a report said a growing number of countries had enacted travel bans against the UK over the past week.<\/p>\n
Experts say that Pfizer and Moderna vaccines should still provide immunity against this coronavirus strain. \u201cA mutation isn\u2019t necessarily a bad thing. Viruses are expected to mutate,\u201d said Brian Labus, an epidemiologist, infectious disease expert, and public health professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.<\/p>\n
In fact, Steve Russell, PhD, MPH, the CEO and co-founder of Imanis Life Sciences, said that SARS-CoV-2 \u2014 the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 \u2014 has been acquiring a rate of 1 to 2 mutations a month ever since it first appeared in Wuhan, China. Because of mutations, Labus says that the coronavirus strain from China isn\u2019t the same circulating in the United States and other parts of the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything that has genetic material will undergo mutation, and that\u2019s really the driving force behind evolution. But viruses mutate much more frequently, especially RNA viruses, like coronaviruses,\u201d Angela Rasmussen, PhD, a virologist at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University, said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INP ISLAMABAD Amid the alarming revelation that the latest coronavirus variant has reached Karachi, Dr Atta-ur-Rehman stressed that vaccine would have to be developed at local level to fight the pandemic on Thursday. Dr Rehman, who is the chairperson of the prime minister\u2019s national task force on science and technology, noted that the new variant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-164056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-top-news"],"yoast_head":"\n