yukmonkey said:

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Seems to be much more transmissible but no stats yet on death rate. Lots of European countries reacting strongly.

Anyone know more?

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Early reports say no increase in lethality and is still covered by vaccine. Media is fear mongering

I think there are already hundreds, if not thousands, of strains of the virus. RNA viruses are notorious for being unstable and gradually changing over time. Sometimes the changes are meaningless changes simply in how their genetic profile is mapped, sometimes it can affect lethatlity, infectivity, or something else.

The big concern right now would be something called antigenic shift. The main antigen in question would be the spike protein. If it changes sufficiently that it is no longer recognized by the target of the vaccine, that would be bad news. That being said, if it changed sufficiently, it may also not bind as well to the receptor that allows it to enter the cells. This is unlikely, as it would make it less infective, and likely for the strain to die out.

We'll see what happens, but there's not really anything new that can be done, that shouldn't already be done - be mindful of your interactions with others, wash your hands, wear masks, wait for the vaccine, etc.,

"More transmissible"

What, if you look at someone with COVID wrong you'll get it? Not sue how it can be "more" transmissible that it already is.

Would assume more contagious less deadly, I.e. the progression of every virus ever?

Gonna need to wear 2 masks

Now that we've chemically sanitized the earth to hell and back, I'm wondering what kind of resistant superbug is set to emerge and threaten increasingly weakened immune systems