How worried should we be about the new Covid variants? | Sharon Peacock

Scientists are working to find out how to stop the transmission of mutations that started in England, South Africa and Brazil

• Sharon Peacock is director of the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium
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The recent announcement that the Covid variant first detected in the south of England could be more deadly than its predecessor was alarming to everyone. In truth, without more evidence we can't be absolutely certain of a direct, causal link between this variant and a higher risk of death. There are other explanations, including the limitations of the data used so far.But it would be unwise to make any assumptions about coronavirus.

Mutations are expected in any virus, and we know that the rate of mutation in Sars-CoV-2 (perhaps one or two in its genome a month) is low compared with other viruses, including flu. But what's more important than the rate of mutation are the opportunities this virus has to mutate. The more humans become infected, the more opportunities the virus has to develop and change. Currently, about 100 million people have been infected with Covid-19 (the true number may be even higher because of asymptomatic infections). Each one of these people is another opportunity for mutations to occur. This is why we must do whatever it takes to reduce the transmission of Covid-19 and prevent it from spreading through the population.