B.1.1.7 strain of the Coronavirus. How bad?

[curiousgeorge5]

I know there is this new B.1.1.7 strain of the Coronavirus. Any idea how sick it makes a person compared to the flu?

[ncole1]

It is clinically similar to "regular" COVID-19 but is more contagious which means you're more likely to catch it once it becomes the dominant variant.

[mike1003]

Originally Posted by curiousgeorge5

I know there is this new B.1.1.7 strain of the Coronavirus. Any idea how sick it makes a person compared to the flu?

It is COVID, just more contagious.



More deadly than the flu and the new strain is much more contagious.

[curiousgeorge5]

Originally Posted by ncole1

It is clinically similar to "regular" COVID-19 but is more contagious which means you're more likely to catch it once it becomes the dominant variant.

Originally Posted by mike1003

It is COVID, just more contagious.



More deadly than the flu and the new strain is much more contagious.

It is more contagious but not as nasty as the regular coronavirus/covid-19.

[ocnjgirl]

Originally Posted by curiousgeorge5

It is more contagious but not as nasty as the regular coronavirus/covid-19.

Do you have a link for that? I read it wasn't more dangerous, but nothing that said it was less deadly.

[elnina]

A new CDC study suggests that a new highly contagious coronavirus variant may cause most U.S. cases in about two months. The B.1.1.7 variant has 23 mutations that may help the virus better spread among people, though the variant isn’t thought to cause more severe disease. But neither is more dangerous than the virus that has circulated for the last year, experts say, and available vaccines should remain effective.
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/...ominant-strain

Information from Public Health England last updated on December 29, 2020, notes that there is “currently […] no evidence that the variant is more likely to cause severe disease or mortality,” though further investigations are underway.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/art...avirus-variant
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/...ay/6575267002/

For updates check here:
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/art...rus-covid-19#1

[2x3x29x41]

Originally Posted by curiousgeorge5

I know there is this new B.1.1.7 strain of the Coronavirus. Any idea how sick it makes a person compared to the flu?

20B/501Y.V1, or lineage B.1.1.7, is no more or less virulent on an individual basis.

On a collective basis, however, it will be more deadly, as it will infect a greater number of people due to its increased transmissibility, and if more people are infected then the total number of fatalities will increase even as the mortality rate remains unchanged.

[sayinit]

I read that one of the variants is 70 percent more transmissable than the original, but not more deadly.

[ocnjgirl]

Originally Posted by sayinit

I read that one of the variants is 70 percent more transmissable than the original, but not more deadly.

It’s not any more or any less deadly, except that more people will get it so more will die.

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

Originally Posted by curiousgeorge5

It is more contagious but not as nasty as the regular coronavirus/covid-19.

I like that you wrote the OP asking how bad it was, then came to the above (wrong) conclusion seemingly out of nowhere.