A homegrown coronavirus strain that emerged in California is more contagious and shows higher resistance to antibodies from COVID-19 vaccines, scientists have warned.
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco said the new variant has dangerous implications and should be considered “concerning,” similar to those from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“The devil is already here,” said Dr. Charles Chiu, who led the study, to the outlet. ‘I wish it were different. But science is science. “
In the team’s unpublished findings, it suggests the variant is about 19 to 24 percent more transmissible, the outlet reported.
Over a period of just five months, the new strain grew to more than 50 percent of all coronavirus samples used for genetic sequencing in the state, Chiu said.
The strain was also found to be more resistant to neutralizing antibodies – raising serious questions about how much vaccines can protect against it.
Compared to previous strains, the effectiveness of neutralizing antibodies against the variant was reduced to half the usual levels, the study found, according to the LA Times.
Chiu said the variant will likely make up 90 percent of the state’s cases by the end of the month.
Similar to the strains in the United Kingdom and South Africa, the variant shows a mutation in the spike protein – the part of the virus that makes it contagious, the paper reported.
Scientists recreated the mutation in a lab and found that it could infect human lung tissue about 40 percent more easily, the outlet reported.