New COVID-19 Variant Has Potential to Infect Some People More Easily, CDC Says

The agency stated that there is no evidence that LB.2 can cause more severe disease.

This scanning electron microscope image shows the novel coronavirus (orange), which causes COVID-19 disease, isolated from a patient in the United States, emerging from the surface of cells (green) cultured in the lab. Image published on Feb. 13, 2020. Courtesy of NIAID-RML

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated on June 26 that a new COVID-19 variant spreading across the United States shows a higher potential to infect certain individuals, although the agency noted that there’s “no evidence” that it causes more severe symptoms.

The recently discovered variant LB.1 “has the potential to infect some people more easily based on a single deletion in a spike protein,” CDC spokesman David Daigle told The Epoch Times on June 26, in response to a question about the LB.1 variants’ severity.