Back in December 2019, a deadly virus had made its mark in Wuhan province, China. Some people were infected and showed symptoms such as fever, cough and also shortness of breath. If this infection is not treated, it may lead to death. It was later known that this is a new virus that goes by the name Covid-19. It is so deadly and highly infectious. In just months’ time, most of the countries in this world were infected by it. This leads to the announcement of Covid-19 pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. Since then, a lot of countries have had to implement their own measures in preventing the spread of Covid-19 virus. Some protocols that were included are practicing social distancing, wearing mask or face protection, avoiding a crowded place, sanitizing your hands frequently and also frequent environment cleaning. However, these protocols are only to prevent the infection, it does not make it go away. The only solution that can help to eradicate Covid-19 from this earth is one and only corona virus vaccine.
After Covid-19 was declared as a pandemic, a lot of vaccine researchers and developers joined hands in producing Covid-19 vaccine. In January 2021, some vaccines such as Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson were released and are available to be used. However, in the midst of the vaccination program, the world has been shocked to hear about new Covid-19 news. Scientists believed that Covid-19 virus had undergone its mutation. This is actually being predicted by the scientists, but it is so shocking to know that the process has been very fast. After hearing this news, many people panicked about this situation and many questions arose. Some of it was: will this mutation make it harder to control Covid-19 outbreak? What happened to the vaccines? Are they still effective in fighting these mutations?
There are a lot of Covid-19 mutations and these were well documented in several countries. A new Covid-19 variant was found in the United Kingdom in March 2021, resulting in more severe cases. In the India country, some variants were thought to become more powerful and have a high infectivity rate. Some go to South Africa, there are cases where the variant became very aggressive and caused an immediate death. All of these mutations will make it harder for us to stop Covid-19 infection. Why? It is because a mutation will have caused a new variant to be born. A new variant of Covid-19 is like a new virus, but with some structure changes. This new variant also managed to establish some new abilities.
As a result, a mutated Covid-19 virus will become more deadly, more infectious than before, can give some severe side effects in just a short amount of time and is harder to be eradicated. However, the prevention and control protocol will always remain the same. For any virus to be prevented and eradicated, the people need to follow the virus prevention guidelines. These are the same as mentioned above. Practicing these guidelines will decrease the chances of getting an infection, hence decreasing the disease spread. Besides, the produced vaccines are also effective in trying to prevent Covid-19 infection. This is because the main structure of Covid-19 can still be recognized by the vaccine although it has undergone some slight changes. However, the problem here is time. No one knows whether this virus will undergo mutation again and as a result, produce another new variant. We are not fighting against Covid-19 virus; in fact, we are fighting against time.
