Viruses mutate; so does everything, really.
But its good to be informed.
The more virus there is in the world, the more chances it has to mutate.
And the more variants there are, the greater the chances that some of them will be bad news.
But here we are.
Another thing to remember is that youll only find variants if youre looking for them.
The U.S. does some of this too, but much less.
What are the variants to know?
It seems to be 50% more transmissible than a typical COVID virus.
It has multiple mutations, including eight on the spike protein.
(The spike protein is the part of the virus that interacts with our cells.
When we make antibodies to the spike protein, those antibodies can stop the virus from infecting us.
B.1.1.7 is more transmissible, but the disease it causes does not seem to be any worse than usual.
It seems to be more transmissible than typical COVID, but does not change the severity of disease.
P.1 is a variant from Brazil, first detected in December 2020.
It also has mutations that seem concerning, including to the spike protein.
CAL.20C is a variant thatsbecoming popular in Los Angeles.
We dont know much about it yet.
For all of these variants, the science is still very new.
The things we know about them are tentative.
What happens now?
First, scientists are working on answering the unanswered questions about these variants.
Its extra,extraimportant to get vaccines to people as quickly as possible.
