The study authors, from South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases and the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (KRISP), discovered that the variant is associated with increased transmissibility and “reduced neutralization sensitivity,” meaning it may not respond as well as other variants to existing vaccines. This version of the virus is especially troubling because it has produced a “concerning constellation of mutations,” the researchers wrote. Investigators have found that C.1.2 has a mutation rate of about 41.8 mutations per year, which is almost double the current global rate of other variants of concern. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that variants are expected because viruses constantly change through mutations. So far, FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccines have provided protection against delta and other known variants, largely preventing severe illness and hospitalization. “We don’t know how effective the vaccines will be against new variants that may arise,” wrote the CDC. RELATED: All the Latest News and Numbers About the COVID-19 Pandemic Recent research indicates just how dangerous variants can be. An investigation published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases on August 27 analyzed more than 40,000 cases and found that individuals with the delta variant (first detected in the United Kingdom in March 2021) had a twofold greater risk of hospitalization compared with those infected with the alpha variant, which was first detected in the UK in November 2020. Also, the risk of emergency care visits or hospital admission was 1.5 times higher for people infected with the delta variant compared with the alpha variant. “People who are vaccinated should feel comforted that if they get COVID they’re [most likely] going to be okay, but still, it makes sense to be careful,” said Julie Parsonnet, MD, an infectious-diseases specialist and a professor of medicine at Stanford University in California. “But they may also carry it, and if they’re in crowded places, they should just wear masks and try to be a good citizen.”
