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‘Let’s listen to scientists and not panic’: WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan on new coronavirus variant
She also urged nations to not panic and focus on the vaccination programmes and strengthen public health measures.
While the emergence of a new Covid-19 variant B.1.1.529 has caused panic among countries, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan on Friday said that the WHO’s technical advisory group on SARS-CoV-2 virus evolution (TAG VE) would hold a meeting to review the situation and conduct further studies regarding the variant. She also urged nations to not panic and focus on the vaccination programmes and strengthen public health measures.
“The @WHO technical advisory group on #SARSCoV2 virus evolution will meet today to review what's known and plan further studies,” Swaminathan tweeted. “Meanwhile, we need to focus on strengthening vaccination coverage and public health measures. Let's be cautious, listen to scientists & not panic,” she added.
The emphasis on listening to scientists from the WHO’s chief scientist came after the UN health agency’s spokesperson Christian Lindmeier cautioned countries against implementing travel measures. “The WHO recommends that countries continue to apply a risk-based and scientific approach when implementing travel measures,” he said, as several countries imposed restrictions on flights arriving from South Africa, where the variant was first detected, and many more countries mulling such measures.
Meanwhile, a virtual meeting of the TAG VE began at 1100 hrs GMT (4.30pm IST) to discuss the classification of the variant, according to a report by AFP. Earlier in the day, technical lead of the WHO’s health emergencies program Maria Van Kerkhove too said that the group would meet to discuss the variant.
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“I thank researchers from South Africa and Botswana for sharing information with @WHO & the world about B.1.1.529 variant that has been recently detected. We will convene our TAG-VE again today to discuss. Everyone out there: do not discriminate against countries that share their findings openly,” Kerkhove tweeted.
Further, on Thursday, she also said, “There are fewer than a 100 whole genome sequences available. We don’t know very much about this yet. What we do know is that this variant has a large number of mutations. And the concern is that when you have so many mutations it can have an impact on how the virus behaves.”
Noting that it might take a few weeks for the global body to understand the impact of the new variant, she said “The TAG VE will discuss if it will become a variant of interest or a variant of concern and if that’s the case then we will give it a Greek name but it is something to watch.”
