More contagious COVID strain detected in Philly-Bucks County resident

• Nina Feldman/WHYY
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  Nina Feldman covers behavioral health for WHYY. She grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan, but before coming to Philadelphia she lived in New Orleans, where she worked at American Routes and contributed to the NPR affiliate WWNO. She likes to understand neighborhoods, watch friends do what they’re good at, and be underwater. She also started the New Orleans Ladies Arm Wrestling league, or NO LAW.

(Philadelphia) — Scientists have identified the highly transmissible B.1.1.7 variant of the SARS-Cov-2 virus in a woman in her 50s who lives in Philadelphia and Bucks County. The newly discovered strain was originally detected in the United Kingdom last September.

Frederic Bushman, chair of microbiology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, analyzed the sample sent to his lab following an investigation by the health departments in both counties where the woman resides.

Bushman’s lab has the capacity to perform sophisticated viral genetic sequencing, which is how the variant was originally detected in the U.K. Bushman’s team found that the sample from the Southeastern Pennsylvania woman contained 22/23 of the mutations characteristic of the new strain, including all of the changes to the Spike protein. It’s those changes that scientists have predicted makes the variant more infectious.

The patient began showing symptoms the last week of December, and was briefly hospitalized, health officials from the two counties said in a joint statement Friday. She is currently recovering.

B.1.1.7 is one of three more contagious strains of the coronavirus that have developed since the pandemic began — the other two were detected originally in South Africa and Brazil.

So far 76 cases of B.1.1.7 have been detected in the United States, with the most in California and Florida. It’s been found in 46 countries.

It is not unusual for a virus to mutate — the question is whether the changes in the virus’s Spike protein, which scientists theorize will make it easier to bind to cells, will affect the efficacy of the vaccines currently available. The two authorized mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 are both designed to give the body instructions for how to build its own Spike protein, prompting a lasting immune response.

So far, evidence suggests the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine will still defend against the B.1.1.7 variant in its current stage. Further mutation may complicate that, and the other strains have not yet been investigated.

While the new strain is not inherently more deadly, if it indeed causes more infections, some of which become serious, it could ultimately result in more death as well.

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WHYY is the leading public media station serving the Philadelphia region, including Delaware, South Jersey and Pennsylvania. This story originally appeared on WHYY.org.