Study: British variant coronavirus not more deadly after all | Abroad

Two new studies on the British variant have appeared in The Lancet Infectious Diseases and The Lancet Public Health. In one of these, the researchers looked at the data of 341 corona patients who tested positive in southeast England at the end of last year when the British variant was on the rise there.

More than half of those patients had the British variant among the members. 36 percent of them became seriously ill or even died. In the other group, this was 38 percent, according to the researchers. Patients with the British variant were often younger and infections were more common in ethnic minorities.

The researchers also looked at infectivity by analyzing the data from PCR tests. They found that the cotton swabs of corona patients with the British variant often contain higher amounts of virus particles than the other swabs.

1.35 times more contagious

The other study looked at the data of 36,920 positively tested Britons who used an app in which they reported their symptoms. According to that study, the British variant is 1.35 times more contagious than previous variants, but these researchers also saw no evidence that the British variant makes someone sicker.

Various analyzes have been published about the danger of the mutated version from England. Several of these indicate a higher mortality risk. The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) initially saw no indications that the British mutation would be more deadly, but the institute later adjusted that estimate. “Research in the United Kingdom has since made it clear that people who become infected with the British variant there became sicker and died more often than was the case with the ‘old’ variants,” says the RIVM website. .

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