The British virus variant may be more deadly

The study, published in the British Medical Journal, was performed on approximately 110,000 people who tested positive for covid-19 between October 1, 2020 and February 12 this year.

Infected with the new British variant (B.1.1.7) has been compared with as many infected with the previously dominant variant in the UK and the rest of Europe.

It is not known why you get sicker from the British version.

- If the virus binds better, more viruses are secreted and then the virus spreads more easily.

When it binds better, you also probably get more virus directly into the lungs and then we can probably more easily get pneumonia, says Anders Vahlne, professor of clinical virology at Karolinska Institutet. 

The predominant variants of SARS-CoV-2 that have gradually emerged during the pandemic have all undergone a change called D614G in the nail protein, according to a study published in Nature on February 26.

This mutation helps the virus multiply faster and makes it easier for the virus to attach to our cells.

- The British variant that is now being spread in Europe and Sweden has also received the change N501Y, which makes the virus even better at spreading and binding to cells.

It probably spreads better than the South African because it seems to bind better to our cells, says Anders Vahlne.

In the South African, Brazilian and the new variant that is spreading in New York, there are further changes compared to the British variant.

What they all have in common is that they have a mutation called E484K, except for the N501Y which is found in the British variant.

- E484K binds better than N501Y, but the variants that have E484K also have additional mutations that make them ultimately bind worse than the British variant, says Anders Vahlne.

Over time, viruses tend to become less aggressive, says Anders Vahlne.

This applies to viruses that are most contagious when we are ill.

Then the virus must adapt in order to survive.

It is not an advantage for viruses to kill their host, because the virus wants to live on by the host infecting new people.

With the virus that causes covid-19, Anders Vahlne believes that it can take decades before it happens.

- This is because the virus is transmitted before we become ill, which means that the virus has time to spread to the next person regardless of how ill we become.

If you become infected before you become ill, the virus does not have to be milder to be able to continue to spread and therefore the virus for covid-19 can continue to be dangerous for a long time, he says.