The evidence is in, and the UK variant does appear to be of great concern. The viral load of infected people is higher, and it seems to be about 50% more transmissible. It doesn’t appear to cause more severe illness, but more cases will unfortunately result in greater mortality.

The estimated viral load of people infected with the new variant is substantially higher, although it is not yet clear why. Further laboratory studies will hopefully explain

In contrast to early speculation, children do not appear to be markedly more susceptible to the new variant.

An investigation using NHS contact tracing data found 15.1% of contacts of people infected with the new variant became infected, compared to 9.8% of contacts of people infected with an older

Mortality does not seem to be substantially different.

In an analysis of 2,700 people followed for 28 days, 0.89% of people with the new variant died compared to 0.73% of those with older variants. This was not statistically