The latest addition to the omicron lineage has been making waves in Europe. Whether it will do the same in the U.S. depends on rates of vaccination and prior infection.
Vaccination, masking and social distancing are tried and true ways to protect against COVID-19 infection.
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New variants of the COVID-19 virus may be more contagious and cause more severe disease than the original. A pediatrician and infectious disease specialist explains why.
Coronavirus is 30,000 RNA ‘letters’ long, meaning there are over a quintillion possible genome permutations.
A COVID-19 patient in an ICU unit in a hospital in Capetown, South Africa, in December 2020. A variant emerged in South Africa that has since spread to other parts of the world. Other new variants could emerge elsewhere.
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As the US vaccinates millions more people each day, the novel coronavirus works to survive. It does this by mutating. So far, several variants are worrisome. A virologist explains what they are.
The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is the latest to struggle against the South African variant in trials, while in Israel vaccines may be beginning to have an effect.