This archive report was first published on 3 July 2020.
Published on July 2, 2020, a new study in the journal Cell reveals that the genetic variation of the novel coronavirus currently dominating the world is more infectious than the original strain that emerged in China.
Researchers from the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and Duke University in North Carolina, in partnership with the University of Sheffield's Covid-19 Genomics UK research group, analyzed genome samples published on GISAID, an international resource for sharing genome sequences.
The study found that the current variant, called 'D614G,' makes a small but potent change in the 'spike' protein that protrudes from the surface of the virus, allowing it to infect human cells more readily.
According to Anthony Fauci, the United States' top infectious disease specialist, the data suggests that this current mutation is more transmissible between people in the real world compared to the previous iteration.
However, the study's lead author noted that the variant is still at the stage of being confirmed, and more research is needed to determine its full impact.
Erica Ollmann Saphire, who carried out one of the experiments at La Jolla Institute for Immunology, said, 'It seems likely that it's a fitter virus.'
Nathan Grubaugh, a virologist at the Yale School of Public Health, added that the expansion of the variant means that it is now the pandemic, but emphasized that the results don't change much for the general public.
