Boris Johnson Covid English variant
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that according to recent studies the English variant of Covid-19 would appear to be more lethal.
On the evening of 22 January British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that according to the latest studies the English variant of Covid-19 would seem to be more lethal: “We have been informed today that, in addition to spreading faster, there seems to be some evidence that the new variant may be associated with a higher degree of mortality“.
The news adds to the news about the increased transmissibility of the new strain, discovered in the English county of Kent.
In his speech Boris Johnson also reported the claims of Patrick Vallance, the government’s physician and scientific advisor, for whom evidence of more deaths caused by the new variant than the original strain of Sars-Cov-2 would emerge. According to Vallance the English variant would cause 13/14 deaths per thousand infected, compared to the 10 of the previous variant.
This data was also confirmed by epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, who also stated on 22 January: “It is a realistic possibility that the new British variant increases the risk of mortality, but considerable uncertainty remains.”, four university research centers: “examined the relationship between people found positive to the variant over the old strains and the resulting mortality. A 1.3-fold increase in mortality was inferred. So for those who have already reached the age of 60, 13 out of 1000 people could die compared to 10 out of 1000 as happened for the old stocks“.