The coronavirus variants are, in a word, confusing.
By now you have likely heard about different variants that first raised trouble in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil and now maybe California — though the jury is very much out on whether that last one is cause for concern. To make a messy alphabet soup even more jumbled, these variants have unwieldy names, and they each contain mutations with unwieldy names of their own. The result is that people are left trying to differentiate among B.1.1.7 and N501Y and E484K.
STAT has put together a Q and A about the variants, including answers to:
- Why are they popping up now?
- Why are they worrisome?
- What is the response from scientists?