3 Theories to Explain Why the Mutant Coronavirus Is More Transmissible

Scientists are racing to understand why the B.1.1.7 variant spreads more easily

Yasmin Tayag
Medium Coronavirus Blog
2 min readJan 19, 2021

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Credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH

The most worrying feature of the mutated coronavirus variant known as B.1.1.7 is that it’s more transmissible, meaning people infected with this variant can spread it more easily to others. Experts estimate that…

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Yasmin Tayag
Medium Coronavirus Blog

Editor, Medium Coronavirus Blog. Senior editor at Future Human by OneZero. Previously: science at Inverse, genetics at NYU.