The head of the UK’s genetic surveillance programme said, the Coronavirus variant first found in the British region of Kent is a concern because it could undermine the protection given by vaccines against developing COVID-19.

Sharon Peacock, director of the COVID-19 Genomics UK consortium, also said the variant was dominant in the UK and was likely to sweep the world, in all probability. She said vaccines were so far effective against the variants in the United Kingdom, but that mutation could potentially undermine the shots.

There are three major known variants that are worrying scientists: The South African variant, the so-called UK or Kent variant, and the Brazilian variant.
The British variant, which is more infectious but not necessarily more deadly than others, was likely to sweep the world, Peacock said. The two COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and AstraZeneca protect against the main British variant.

It is pertinent to note that, the U.K. variant has several mutations that affect the "spike protein" on the virus surface that attaches to human cells. "It's able to bind to the receptors on cells better, and therefore is transmitted better," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, said at the very end of December.

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