COVID-19 VARIANT ZAPS UK BUT EXPERTS AREN’T WORRIED

UK health secretary Matt Hancock has confirmed the presence of a variant of the COVID-19, now identified as VUI-202012/01 and determined to have had a set of 17 changes or mutations.

One of the most significant is an N501Y mutation in the spike protein that the virus uses to bind to the human ACE2 receptor. Changes in this part of spike protein may, in theory, result in the virus becoming more infectious and spreading more easily between people, the Guardian reported.

As of December 13, a total of 1,108 cases with this variant had been identified in the UK in nearly 60 different local authorities, although the true number will be much higher. These cases were predominantly in the south east of England, but there have been recent reports from further afield, including Wales and Scotland.

Reporting for Live Science, Nicoletta Lanese said experts like Nick Loman, professor of microbial genomics and bioinformation at the University of Birmingham, said “there are no data to suggest it had been imported from abroad, so it is likely to have evolved in the UK.”

The emergence of this new variant is "not unexpected," Dr. Susan Hopkins, the medical adviser for the UK's Test and Trace program, said in the statement. In fact, new variants of the virus have cropped up throughout the pandemic, with some infecting more people than others, Live Science previously reported.

"It's important that we spot any changes quickly to understand the potential risk any variant may pose," Hopkins said. Currently, there's no indication that the variant identified in the UK causes more-severe illness than others in circulation, she said.

In addition, there's no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines would work differently against the variant, according to the statement. In general, any single genetic mutation is unlikely to make COVID-19 vaccines less effective, Live Science previously reported.

That's partly because the vaccines prompt the immune system to build different types of antibodies, which then target different sites on the coronavirus, Dr. Alex Greninger, an assistant director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at the University of Washington Medical Center, told Live Science in an email.

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