"But there are sufficient new mutations for us to watch this one with a careful eye," says Dr. Daniel M. Parker, Ph.D., an associate professor of population health & disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine. … This [COVID] variant, as with others, should be treated with respect," Dr. Parker says. "Vaccination helps reduce the severity of infections, but it doesn’t mean that you cannot become ill and transmit the disease to others."

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