Paul Tambyah Says ‘Levelled Up’ Covid-19 Mutation Found In S’pore, But May Be Less Deadly

Paul Tambyah Says ‘Levelled Up’ Covid-19 Strain May Be Less Deadly, As Mutated Viruses Are Less Lethal

As if the current Covid-19 strain isn’t bad enough, we were recently alerted that a “levelled up” strain of the virus has been found in our closest neighbour.

The D614G mutation is reportedly 10 times more infectious, and infectious diseases expert Paul Tambyah has even said more shockingly that it has been found in Singapore!

However, perhaps we shouldn’t be too alarmed just yet — the strain may be more infectious, but it also seems to be less lethal, Dr Tambyah added.

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D614G mutation found in S’pore

Dr Tambyah, who has been elected president of the International Society of Infectious Diseases, was asked about this mutation during an interview with Reuters news agency.

He said something that might cause a chill in Singaporeans: It has also been found in Singapore, Reuters quoted him as saying.

That means some of the 55,938 Covid-19 cases in Singapore might have been infected by this strain.

Mutation increasingly common in Europe, but may be less lethal

Apparently, this mutation is being increasingly seen in patients in Europe.

Dr Tambyah, who’s also the chairman of the Singapore Democratic Party, told Reuters that though the mutation has spread across Europe, the number of people who’ve died from Covid-19 in the continent has dropped.

This may suggest that the mutation is actually less lethal, he said.

Virus mutations tend to be less harmful

Dr Tambyah said viruses tend to become less harmful when they mutate.

From what, he said, it can be understood that viruses will mutate so they can better serve their interests. And a virus’ interests are:

1. To depend on a host for food and shelter
2. To infect as many hosts as possible

Since viruses depend on their hosts for food and shelter, it benefits them not to kill their hosts.

The virus also wants to infect as many people as possible, and it’s easier to do it when their hosts are alive and walking around, rather than dead.

In fact, Dr Tambyah was also quoted by Reuters as saying,

Maybe that’s a good thing to have a virus that is more infectious but less deadly.

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Thus, even as we fear a more contagious mutation, there’s a silver lining here — even if D614G is more contagious, people are less likely to die from it.

Alarm sounded by Malaysia

The alarm was sounded by Malaysia ’s health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah, who said D614G is 10 times more infectious and easier to spread, especially if it involves people who are “super spreaders”.

In his Facebook post on Sunday (16 Aug), he said the detection of this new strain could also result in ongoing vaccine studies to be ineffective or incomplete against this mutation.

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Other experts say no impact on vaccine efficacy

However, in contrast to what Dr Noor Hisham said, Dr Tambyah told Reuters that the mutation isn’t likely to have affect the efficacy of a potential vaccine.

Professor Ooi Eng Eong, deputy director of the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases at Duke-NUS Medical School, also agreed with Dr Tambyah.

He told The Straits Times (ST) that the mutation won’t affect vaccine efficacy,

…since vaccines would generate antibodies that bind many different parts of the virus spike protein and not just be limited to the site of mutation.

D614G has been in S’pore since Feb

Another infectious disease expert also confirmed Dr Tambyah’s claim that the D614G mutation has been found in Singapore.

In fact, Associate Professor Hsu Liyang told ST that the mutation has been circulating in the population since February.

Prof Hsu, who is an infectious diseases specialist from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health, said Singapore has recorded more than 100 Covid-19 infections that come from this mutation.

That’s within the timeframe of from February to August.

As this was found by sequencing of a just a fraction of virus samples, that may mean the actual number of infections from D614G is in the thousands, he said.

Professor Wang Linfa, director of the Programme in Emerging Infectious Diseases, was even more assuring about D614G.

He told ST that there’s no scientific data at all that it’s more contagious.

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Much still unknown about D614G

Many Singaporeans may be anxious about the mutation of the coronavirus, as so much is still unknown.

Thankfully, after what experts like Dr Tambyah have told us about D614G, we’re a little more assured that it won’t be an apocalyptic disaster, at least not more than what we’ve experienced in the past few months.

While we can’t wait for the Covid-19 pandemic to be over, the emergence of mutations like D614G may just be a sign that we’ll simply have to live with the virus.

Featured images adapted from Facebook and Unsplash.