"Science": New crown variant discovered in California may be more deadly

The situation in California, the United States is not good: the new coronavirus variant found here is spreading faster.

According to the latest preprint study published by the University of California, San Francisco, this virus is more infectious: on September 1, 2020, this mutated virus accounted for nearly 0% of infected people in California; and by 2021, 1 On the 29th, 50% of the new cases in California were caused by this mutant virus.

On February 23, local time, "Science" reported that laboratory research and epidemiological data showed that this newly discovered variant of the pandemic new coronavirus is not only easier to spread, but also appears to be more toxic.

Charles Chiu, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, said that this new coronavirus variant is worrying, and data shows that it is more infectious, more likely to cause severe symptoms, and can resist some neutralizing antibodies.

Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University, told Science that it is necessary to conduct a more detailed study of the mutated new coronavirus.

In the study of the University of California, San Francisco, they collected virus samples from patients in 44 counties of California from September 1, 2020 to January 29, 2021, and sequenced 2,172 viral genomes.

The researchers also obtained the medical records of 324 new crown patients in the medical centers and clinics under the University of California, San Francisco.

Other data indicate that this variant is more contagious.

In laboratory studies, B.

Robert Schooley, an infectious disease and virologist at the University of California, San Diego, spoke highly of the research conducted by the University of California, San Francisco, especially the high viral load in the nose of the infected person.

However, the number of cases is still not large enough, which is a flaw in this study.