Scientists are concerned the new mutant strain of coronavirus first found in southeast England can more easily infect children after research showed it had a statistically significant higher rate of infection among youth than other variants, the Independent reported Monday.
Prof. Neil Ferguson from Imperial College London explained, "There is a hint that it has a higher propensity to infect children. That may perhaps explain some of the differences, but we haven't established any sort of causality on that, but we can see that in the data."
More studies are being conducted to better understand its effects on vaccines and patients, including on children.
Prof. Wendy Barclay, a member of the British government's advisory group, added, "We're not saying that this is a virus which specifically targets children or is any more specific in its ability to infect children, but we know that COVID was not as efficient in affecting children as it was in adults."
Scientists warned over the weekend the variant has already spread rapidly to the rest of Great Britain and is also present elsewhere around the world, the Financial Times reported.
The World Health Organization said it is working in close cooperation with the British authorities to understand how the variant is likely to affect the pandemic.
Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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