The new COVID-19 strand and how to stop its spread

Kelsey Osborne - Sophomore | News

Around September 2020, a new variant of the Coronavirus was discovered in the United Kingdom. At this time, the strain has been reported in numerous other countries such as Denmark, the Netherlands, and other European countries.

Some online resources claim that the new name for this strain is SARS-CoV-2, which is incorrect because SARS-CoV-2 is actually the virus that caused COVID-19, and was what the disease was originally named before it was COVID-19.

By December, the new strain of COVID-19 became the most popular strain among reported Coronavirus victims. Although it is not uncommon for diseases to mutate overtime, many people have begun to worry that this new strain will cause even more devastation than its predecessor.

However, many scientists believe that Coronavirus vaccines will be able to work on this new strain, and strains to come.

This new strain’s outer layer is reportedly more sticky than the original that was found in Wuhan, China. This stickiness may be linked to the faster transmission of the virus, or it could mean it will be harder to remove. The overall deaths attributed to the new strain are quite comparable to the original COVID-19, but this new strain seems to infect more children than the original.

Scientists advise the public to not stress too much about the new strain, however they emphasize that the public needs to continue to wear masks and social distance as much as possible to limit the spread.

“There is no demonstration yet that these strains are biologically different in ways that would require any change in current recommendations meant to limit spread of COVID-19. Nonetheless, we must continue to be vigilant for such phenomena.” said Ray Bollinger, M.D, MPH, the Raj and Kamla Gupta Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Although many older citizens have received their first dose of the Coronavirus vaccine, it does not mean this is the time to let our guard down in regards to this pandemic, because time and time again we have seen that blatant acts of ignorance can have deadly conclusions.