SEOUL — Coronavirus variants spreading out of the UK and South Africa are new obstacles for companies struggling to bring forth viable treatments and vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic.
The outstanding question is: Are the treatments and vaccines thus far developed still effective against the coronavirus variants?
According to the World Health Organization, the UK variant has a genetic mutation in the S gene, making its binding affinity to human receptor cells more powerful. Simply put, this makes the virus more contagious.
UK health authorities have said that the transmissibility has grown 70 percent.
Whether the virus became more deadly, however, is something authorities …
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