Agence France-Presse: The transmission of the Corona virus from mink to humans does not necessarily mean that the disease will become more dangerous, but scientists are on standby in the wake of an amazing announcement from Denmark.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said, Wednesday, that the country will kill more than 15 million mink species and that a different type of SARS-Cove-2 virus that has spread from animals to 12 people could affect the effectiveness of the vaccine.
But specialists are not convinced the risk is much greater and are awaiting more evidence.
“I really hope the science trend stops with the press release,” commented Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Columbia University in New York.
“There is no reason why genomic data cannot be shared, which would allow the scientific community to evaluate these claims,” she added on Twitter.
Viruses like the ones that appeared in China late last year are constantly changing and the new variants aren’t necessarily worse than their predecessors.
To date, no study has shown that the newer variants of Sars-Cov-2 are more contagious or dangerous than their predecessors. Contamination of mink animals is also not new, with breeders in several countries, including the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United States reporting cases.
A small number of cases of humans infected with mink have also been reported.
Denmark was specific in describing how the different strain of the virus was transmitted from mink to humans.
“According to information received from the Danish authorities, this virus is neither the most pathogenic nor the most virulent,” said a specialist at the French Health Agency, Gil Sulfat, told AFP.
He pointed out that there is concern that one of the variants “appears as a second virus and is controlling the population.”
The specialist pointed out that “reaching a vaccine for one strain is really complicated, and if we had to do this for two, four or six strains, it would be more complicated.”
The decision to execute the Danish mink was considered a “precaution.”
