Experts explained the increase in the incidence in Europe against the background of vaccination

Despite the vaccination of more than 70% of the adult population, Europe still registers a high number of people infected with coronavirus per day. This is almost 175 thousand people, including more than 37 thousand in the UK and 15.8 thousand in France, follows from the data of the World HEALTH Organization. Experts interviewed by RBC believe that the spread of the more contagious delta strain and the large scope for the virus among the unill and unvaccinated became the reason for the high incidence rate.

“The SARS-CoV-2 virus, like a gas, occupies the entire volume offered to it. The infection captures those groups of people who used to be in less danger, ”virologist, professor at Moscow State University, DOCTOR of Biology Alexei Agranovsky told RBC.

Prior to this, the old variants of the virus — the Wuhan null strain and its mutations — had little effect on unvaccinated young people, he continued. Now the delta strain has arrived, which can infect this group, including adolescents and children, and this is one of the components of the increase in the incidence, the expert noted.

The same opinion in a conversation with RBC was expressed by the HEAD of the laboratory of especially dangerous infections of the FRC FTM, professor of virology Alexander Chepurnov. “An Indian strain has come in that is diligently attacking a cohort of people who have not been infected before and were not very susceptible,” he said. According to the expert, due to mutations, the delta strain has become not only worse recognized by some antibodies, but also closer to the ACE2- receptor (this receptor is the entry point into the cell for coronaviruses. -), due to which the receptor is better captured. “Therefore, it turned out that young people began to get sick more often and more severely,” Chepurnov noted.