It has been just over a year since the first case of the COVID-19 virus was found in the United States, and we have now spent nearly 10 months in various degrees of lockdowns. From non-essential stores being closed and heavy masking rules in the beginning to social distancing and double masking now, the past year has been like no other. 

It is no surprise that 2021 is no different from 2020: multiple new COVID-19 virus variants have been discovered in the UK, South Africa, and now the United States.

There are at least now three different variants of the COVID-19 virus circulating in the US. Variants like N501Y are believed to be more contagious than the previous strand of the virus. Mutations of these variations have also been a large concern as the virus could completely change from the original form of the virus. This is causing alarm to many citizens as many states including California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, and Massachusetts are lifting stay-at-home restrictions due to declining COVID-19 cases.

According to an article by Bloomberg, the vaccine rollout that has been occurring has only vaccinated about 23.4 million people of the 331 million population of the United States. High concerns are being shown by the public because many are not fully prepared to combat the new strains, and the citizens are not fully aware of the new variants and what to do to prevent contracting them. However, minor suggestions such as double masking, washing hands, and other standard COVID-19 precautions are recommended.

While the new strands of the COVID-19 virus are similar to the original strand, it appears that the only major difference is the rate of transmission from person-to-person. This causes concern to many major faces in the medical world as the United States struggled previously with the original COVID-19 virus.

However, there was recently a new discovery with another mutation of an already mutated version of the virus. Mutation E484k has shown that on the outside of the virus, small spikes cover it. While this was visible on the previous version of the virus, these spikes have a mutation that makes the antibodies that humans produce to fight the virus have a difficult time breaking the virus down. It’s being revealed that the vaccine will be slightly less effective to these mutations, according to an article published by NBC.com.

The coronavirus that struck the world has most likely changed dozens of times, making public officials nervous about the changes that can occur now that people are getting vaccinated. Many are already jumping on the chance to begin developing new vaccines, similar to that of the flu vaccine, that will be administered during the fall.

Overall, over 481,000 Americans have died from the virus since March 2020. This number continues to climb and is higher than various tragedies that have happened throughout American history, including 911, Pearl Harbor, and others. It is recommended to continue to wash your hands, socially distance, and wear a mask to help stop the spread.