Three Vs now govern our future, there's the virus of course and now there's the vaccine

to counter it and then the great complication, there are the variants.

Today confirmation of six people testing positive for a new concerning variant, first found

in Brazil, it can spread more quickly than the original version.

The variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the pandemic, have caused spikes in infection

rates around the world and could possibly damage the effectiveness of vaccines.

Does it spread more easily between people? Does it make people sicker? Is it less well

neutralised by vaccines?

But how do scientists track down a variant before it has a chance to get a grip? And how

do they identify the ones that should most worry us?

Knowing if any new variant has any of those properties and watching as they spread around

the world is I think super important in helping to make informed judgments.

You're listening to stories of our times and the times and the Sunday times, I'm David

Aronovich. Today the great virus variant hunt.

From government briefings, thanks to the brilliant team who've been working so hard over

the past week, we've now successfully identified the sixth case of the variant of concern first

identified in Manaus in Brazil.

To TV news headlines, no time to rest on our laurels with breaking news this evening with

very worrying new variant on our shores.

Variance of the virus are appearing everywhere. It sometimes seems that you can pick a place

on a world map and they'll have their own. But it was only last December that the general

public really started becoming aware of the threat.

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