For the last year we have dealt with an oppressive pandemic that has forever altered our way of life. Typical work settings have evolved from offices to living rooms, typical five day school settings have become zoom calls, typical travel to other countries for vacations or jobs has become non-existent, and nearly 2 million people who have brothers, sisters, parents, children; who experienced love and hate, anger and excitement, fear and confidence, discomfort and pleasure, hunger and thirst, dreams and goals, have died from a deadly virus that continues to militate against us. In our struggle and obscurity, we have pursued a vaccine that we believe will save us from the oppression- the death, destruction, economic turmoil, and mental health collapse resulting from this virus could cede with one shot. Unfortunately, when it comes to creating vaccines, evolution does not help us. With rapidly reproducing viruses, mutations can be common, some of which are pointless, others of which are detrimental to the virus itself, and others of which make the viruses more infectious. As unfortunate as it is, a similar thing has happened to the virus we are currently living through, COVID-19. A new strain, officially known as VUI, which stands for “variant under investigation,” dash 202012/01, which stands for the first variant of COVID-19 under investigation in December of 2020, is ravaging Europe.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or corrections, please email me using the address provided: learningbywilliam@gmail.com

References:
Information on the New Strain of Coronavirus (COVID-19)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VUI_%E2%80%93_202012/01
SARS-CoV-2 Variant - World Health Organization
https://www.who.int/csr/don/21-december-2020-sars-cov2-variant-united-kingdom/en/
How do Viruses Mutate? Yale School of Medicine
https://medicine.yale.edu/coved/modules/virus/evolution/
How SARS-CoV-2 Infects Cells
https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-are-Spike-Proteins.aspx
Viruses and Evolution by Natural Selection
https://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/viruses-and-evolution
RNA Viruses
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/rna-viruses
A Second New COVID-19 Strain! - Fox 2 Detroit
https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/uk-health-officials-announce-2nd-new-covid-19-strain
New COVID-19 Strain Arriving From South Africa - Aljazeera
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/12/23/uk-to-widen-covid-lockdowns-as-new-strain-from-south-africa-found