How the coronavirus variants work, younger persons increasingly affected

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Tue, 2021-04-13 21:12 — mike kraft

More young people are getting hospitalized as a 'stickier,' more infectious coronavirus strain becomes dominant What used to be a mysterious new variant first detected in the UK is now the leading coronavirus strain in the US. And unlike the original novel coronavirus, B.1.1.7 is hitting young people particularly hard. Holly Yan, CNN CNN

(CNN) What used to be a mysterious new variant first detected in the UK is now the most dominant coronavirus strain in the US.

And unlike the original strain of the novel coronavirus, the more contagious B.1.1.7 strain is hitting young people particularly hard.

Now doctors say many young people are suffering Covid-19 complications they didn't expect.

And it's time to ditch the belief that only older adults or people with pre-existing conditions are at risk of severe Covid-19.

Viruses mutate all the time, and most mutations aren't very important. But if the mutations are significant, they can lead to dangerous new variants of a virus.

"The B.1.1.7 variant has mutations that allow it to bind more" to cells, said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN medical analyst and professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University.

"Think of this mutation as making the virus stickier."

"There is a little difference in the way the (B.1.1.7) spike protein holds that makes it stick to your cells a little more easily," said emergency physician Dr. Megan Ranney, director of the Brown-Lifespan Center for Digital Health. ...

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