OP-ED: What do we know about the new variant B1525?

A coronavirus variant called B1525 has become one of the most recent additions to the global variant watch list, and has been included in the list of variants under investigation by Public Health England.

Scientists are keeping a watchful eye on this variant, because it has several mutations in the gene that makes the spike protein -- the part of the virus that latches onto human cells. These changes include the presence of the increasingly well-known mutation called E484K, which allows the virus to partly evade the immune system, and is found in the variants first identified in South Africa (B1351) and Brazil (P1).