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Post date: February 8, 2021 10:41 am
by Xitlaly Cruz Fabian
Image via https://coronavirus.thebaselab.com/
For many, the end of a year marks a new beginning or a chance of a clean slate. However, in December of 2019, the world was changed and affected dramatically within the first few months of 2020. Life was altered and what was deemed as a normal life, now seems unimaginable today. A pandemic that originally started in China swept the nations and countries swiftly by surprise. It ran rapid and wasn’t going to let anyone control it. Some places were more prepared than others, despite this, the world was under the dictatorship of Covid-19.
Numbers of both infected and dead skyrocketed throughout 2020. However, now being in 2021, conditions improved and there are now vaccines that claim to fight against the virus. As hope starts to reform, new variants of the virus are being discovered in multiple countries. Mutation allows the virus to modify itself in order to become better at infecting people and making them sicker, ultimately becoming an indestructible virus. Within the variants that have been discovered the most notable would be the one found in the UK and South Africa.
The variant found in the UK has been named B.1.1.7. Preliminary evidence found that the variant has seventeen genetic changes that allows it to bind more tightly to the cells making it more contagious than the original virus. It is even linked to a higher rate of mortality. In South Africa, the variant was named B.1.351. As like the UK variant, the South Africa variant has its mutation in its spike protein. With these mutations, it increases the survival rate of the virus, making it more diverse which allows it to be less susceptible to vaccines. These variants appear to be found in an increase in children cases. The virus has spread throughout the world, many mutations occur, but most come and go, however there are exceptions like the one found in the UK and South Africa, only now, more and more are starting to appear and survive.
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