A new coronavirus variant found in the United Kingdom has raised concerns across the world, but it might not be all that different than the mutation we’re dealing with now.
- Experts have begun to question if the new mutation is any different than the current one, and how the COVID-19 vaccine might be impacted. So far, experts have suggested that the new mutation will be stopped by the vaccine. More research is still being done.
- But questions still linger about the new virus mutation, including what it might be like to have it.
What are the symptoms of the new COVID-19 variant?
Dr. Darren Mareiniss, assistant professor for emergency medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College — Thomas Jefferson University — recently told Eat This, Not That! that the new variant’s symptoms aren’t that different than the original strain.
- He said that “current testing does not discriminate between different strains.”
- The normal symptoms for COVID-19 include fever, fatigue, muscle aches, chills, sore throat, and loss of taste and smell.
Mareiniss said the bigger problem with the new variant is that it transmits faster.
- “VUI-202012/01 will cause more infections, likely more deaths, and also overwhelm our health care resources more rapidly.”
You may have already had it
Multiple researchers told CNN that the new UK strain of the coronavirus arrived in the United States around mid-November, which means hundreds of people could already be infected.
Dr. Anthony Fauci said Americans should assume that the new coronavirus variant found in the United Kingdom is in the United States.
- “When you have this amount of spread within a place like the U.K., you really need to assume that it’s here already … it certainly is not the dominant strain but I would certainly not be surprised at all if it is already here.”