More Contagious and Dangerous South African Variant of COVID-19 Has Now Reached South Carolina.

“The South Africa strain, B.1.351, is the coronavirus variant that scares people the most. There are ten to twelve mutations in the spike proteins. This becomes problematic when you're targeting the spike protein in the vaccines.”

— Donald Alcendor, Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. of Microbiology, Immunology and Physiology, Meharry Medical College and Assoc. Prof. Adjunct of Infectious Disease, Vanderbilt University

“That's frightening because the South Africa variant is probably more widespread in South Carolina.”

— Krutika Kuppalli, Ph.D., Infectious Diseases, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston