'When we've seen big waves of infection, it's often followed by new variants being generated,' said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University
Could the COVID-19 surge in China unleash a new coronavirus mutant on the world?
Every new infection offers a chance for the coronavirus to mutate, and the virus is spreading rapidly in China. The country of 1.4 billion has largely abandoned its "zero COVID" policy. Though overall reported vaccination rates are high, booster levels are lower, especially among older people. Domestic vaccines have proven less effective against serious infection than Western-made messenger RNA versions. Many were given more than a year ago, meaning immunity has waned.
Experts said a partially immune population like China's puts particular pressure on the virus to change. Ray compared the virus to a boxer that "learns to evade the skills that you have and adapt to get around those." In China, most people have never been exposed to the coronavirus. China's vaccines rely on an older technology producing fewer antibodies than messenger RNA vaccines.
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