TROUBLING

Seven Virus Variants With Same Mutation Detected in US: Study

There’s no evidence yet these variants are more infectious, but they have scientists worried.

Scientists have detected new variants of the coronavirus that appear to have originated in the United States, according to a study released Sunday. While the study—which has yet to be peer-reviewed, meaning it is not approved to be used in clinical practice—has not yet found evidence that these variants are more contagious, it did note that the mutations were in the part of the gene that influences human transmission. “There’s clearly something going on,” Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University's Health Sciences Center and a co-author of the study, told The New York Times. Similar mutations in the virus are behind the faster-spreading nature of the South African and British strains of the virus.