Johnson says new UK Covid strain is "up to 70 percent more transmissible".

[My Pet Orangutan]

"This is spreading very fast".

England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, said there is no evidence at this time to suggest the new strain causes more serious illness, is more deadly or is able to elude the vaccines designed to defeat it. But he said 62 percent of new cases in London are now driven by the variant.

“We have alerted the World Health Organization and are continuing to analyze the available data,” Whitty said.

Speaking of the variant, British chief science adviser Patrick Vallance said, “This virus has taken off, and it’s moving fast and has led to sharp increase in hospitalizations.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/coronavirus-mutation-britain-lockdown/2020/12/19/fd010eea-4206-11eb-b58b-1623f6267960_story.html

[jimfields33]

1. Hmmm. Just what the world needs.

Will the vaccine work on the new strain????

[dalton99a]

3. The messenger RNA fragment in the current vaccines should still work

from what is currently known

[dalton99a]

2. Viruses generally tend to mutate towards more transmissibility and less lethality

as in, they just want to use their hosts but not kill them

(not so fast, anyway)

[PatSeg]

4. Good point

Killing the host would be suicidal.

[Irish_Dem]

5. Hard to imagine a more transmissible illness. nt

[My Pet Orangutan]

6. Measles.

[Irish_Dem]

7. Right, and I guess Ebola was more transmissible too. nt