Virus variants found to be deadlier, more contagious

The coronavirus variant first identified in the UK, known as B.1.1.7, is deadlier than other variants circulating there, a new study appears to confirm.

For every 3 people who died within 4 weeks after being infected with another variant in England between mid-November and mid-January, roughly 5 died who had been infected with B.1.1.7, according to a paper posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review.

Between November and January in Manaus, Brazil, the frequency of COVID-19 cases involving the P.1 coronavirus variant increased from non-existent to 73%, and the number of infections there quadrupled compared to what the city experienced in the first wave of the pandemic, according to another report posted on medRxiv ahead of peer review.

The greater infectiousness of the P.1 variant likely contributed to that, the report suggests.

Most worryingly, antibodies induced by the Moderna Inc and Pfizer Inc/BioNTech vaccines are dramatically less effective at neutralizing some of the most worrying coronavirus variants, a third new study suggests.

All 5 highly resistant variants had mutations in the spike on the virus surface – known as K417N/T, E484K, and N501Y – that characterize a variant rampant in South Africa and two variants spreading rapidly in Brazil. – Rappler.com