Coronavirus - new variants
BBC Inside Science
00:00
Omicron Virus Mutation
The most prevalent strains or variants at the moment are BA2 and Omicron. There is a mixture of competing lineages, all with very similar sets of mutations. All showing very similar mutations driven largely by large numbers of people having already experienced an infection with Omicrons. The mutations are located around the spike protein to escape antibodies generated from vaccination or from previous infection. But we should emphasise again that we are still protected from severe consequences and vaccinated of being up to date with our boosters.
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