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We received news over the weekend that there is a new and even more infectious strain of COVID-19 on the loose in England and South Africa. Mercer Island MD Dr. Gordon Cohen joined Seattle’s Morning News to discuss.

“Let me start by saying this isn’t entirely surprising, but this is a newer strain of the virus that has about eight mutations on it, and it’s only been isolated in a couple of locations so far. It’s been located in South Africa and in a portion of England. And so what’s concerning is that this particular strain appears to move very fast and is rapidly becoming, so it appears, the dominant variant in the UK,鈥� Cohen said.

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鈥淭he COVID strain is concerning. Initially we had about eight different variants, but now they have recognized up to nearly two dozen variants in terms of its genetic makeup. And so some of them are on the spike proteins, which is that portion that the virus uses to attach and infect the cells.鈥�

That said, Dr. Cohen believes that many of the vaccines currently being developed should be effective against these strains.

鈥淭hese mRNA vaccines that have been developed, they target spike proteins. We shouldn’t be overly concerned at the moment. I think that the vaccines that have been developed are likely to be effective against any of the mutations that occur in the near future,鈥� he said.

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鈥淚 just think that it’s always newsworthy and concerning when there’s a new mutation that’s spreading rapidly. But I think the people who are really following this the most closely have yet to express any serious concern about this mutation,鈥� Cohen said.

is nothing to panic about and current vaccines should remain effective against this COVID strain and most future strains to come.

鈥淭here’s actually no indication that this particular variant, this particular mutation, actually causes more severe disease, and it’s probably unlikely that it won’t respond to the vaccines that have been developed so far,鈥� he said.

鈥淭he concern is just that it is spreading more quickly, faster than any other existing strains of the virus. So far, however, there’s only about 1,000 cases that have mainly been identified in the south of England and a little bit in South Africa.鈥�

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