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California coronavirus variant possibly more infectious, might cause more serious illness, S.F. studies show - San Francisco Chronicle
Feb 22, 2021 1 min, 53 secs
Scientists at the Biohub and UCSF found that the California variant is more infectious than other coronavirus versions in circulation locally.

A study in the Mission District found that a more infectious version of the coronavirus has become more prevalent.

By the end of January, the variant made up more than half of cases that were analyzed by scientists at UCSF in one study, which looked at data from 44 of 58 California counties, including all nine Bay Area counties.

Scientists had suspected the variant was more infectious based on how quickly it exploded in parts of the state, and because it had been tied to several large outbreaks, but they lacked firm evidence until now.

Scientists at the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub and UCSF looked at positive test results in the Mission District and found that about 35% of household members became infected when one case of the California variant was brought into the home; the attack rate for other variants was about 26%.

And lab tests showed the variant was less responsive to antibodies produced by people who had previously been infected.

It’s not clear from the results whether the variant is less responsive to vaccines.

variant,” said Joe DeRisi, co-president of the Biohub, of the results of the Mission District study.

Chiu, though, said further study may in fact show that the California variant is about as infectious as the one from the United Kingdom.

Chiu’s study used several techniques to look at how infectious the California variant is and whether it causes more serious illness or may be resistant to an immune response, either from vaccination or previous infection.

Plus, the virus was more highly concentrated in samples taken from individuals infected with the variant.

Scientists also found that the variant was more infectious in lab studies.

But Chiu said the number of hospitalized cases his team looked at was relatively low and further study is needed to know for sure that the variant causes more serious illness.

Then, scientists and public health officials investigated positive cases to determine how the variant spread in households in the Mission.

Scientists found several other potentially concerning mutations in the Mission results, including one person who was infected by a variant out of Brazil called P.2.

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