No, I'm not talking about this fall's widely panned X-Men reboot. I'm talking about B.1.1.7,
the new variant of COVID-19 that's sweeping the globe (and not in a fun, trendy way).
The Public Health Agency of Canada said yesterday the variant may be in Canada already. Here's what we know so far...
What is it: B.1.1.7 is a variant of the Sars-Cov-2 virus with far more mutations than any previous variant: 23 in total, with 17 that could change how the virus affects people.
Where it came from: Scientists now believe the variant emerged from a patient who had COVID for many weeks, giving the virus time to mutate.
Why it matters: Computer models suggest the new variant could be 50% to 70% more infectious than previous strains. But no lab has confirmed this yet, and its rapid spread in the UK could be a coincidence.
- Fortunately, it does not seem (based on what we know now) that the new strain makes people any sicker.
What about vaccines: Most experts do not think the mutation will reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine, and BioNTech's CEO said it was "highly likely" the company's vaccine would work as well against B.1.1.7. It will take 2 weeks of lab testing to confirm this.
Zoom out: The more time the virus has to mutate, the more risk there is that deadlier and more infectious strains will emerge. This makes the speed of a global vaccine rollout even more critical.