Evidence continues to grow that the U.K. coronavirus variant is likely more lethal, and leads to more hospitalizations and cases compared to wild-type strains of the virus, based on data released on a British government website.
The new research complied data and studies from multiple institutions and found “increased severity” of Covid-19 cases compared to non-variants. The study noted that B.1.1.7 cases were 30-70% more lethal in comparison to the original wild-type strains.
Concerns about increased lethality of B.1.1.7 first surfaced in January when the British government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) revealed data suggesting the increased lethality compared with wild-type strains, Forbes reported.
Initial data evaluated by the researchers, based on linked community testing and mortality data, were all predicated on the same datasets, and therefore the same biases. However, more recent analysis of newer data has allowed investigators to control for "additional confounders increasing confidence in the association of the [variant of concern] with increased disease severity," the authors write.
