NYT: Covid Infections in Animals Prompt Scientific Concern

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Minks found in Denmark have contracted the coronavirus and transferred a mutated variant back to humans. The Danish government has decided to kill millions of minks as a precaution. The mink is currently the only known animal case to cause this mutation and retransmission. The mutation did not cause worse symptoms, but instead, the virus was less responsive to antibodies in lab tests. This means vaccines might be less effective for this variant. Scientists are looking at animal genomes to see which species have the ACE2 receptor which allows COVID-19 to break into the cells. So far chimpanzees appear the most susceptible to this kind of respiratory disease. To read more about the COVID-19 vaccine click here. To read the full article by James Gorman click here.

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