"The Lambda Variant burns through the lungs faster."

August 5, 2021

By Katherine Fung

Experts are beginning to monitor (click here) another highly transmissible mutation of the coronavirus as the Delta variant continues to sweep across the nation and fuel the most recent surge in cases.

The Lambda variant, which was first documented in Peru and has been spreading predominately in South America, was only flagged as a "variant of interest" by the World Health Organization (WHO) on June 14.

While much remains to be known about the variant, experts have been wary that its rapid spread could mean that the mutation is more infectious and more resistant to vaccines than the original strain....

Vaccines have not been proven to work against the Lambda Variant.

July 7, 2021

By Keristen Holmes

San Diego - The State of California (click here) lifted its COVID-19 restrictions less than a month ago and now news of variants has doctors all across the globe concerned. First, the Delta variant that's been found in California. Now the Lambda variant out of South America has been deemed the variant of interest by the World Health Organization.

Yaneer Bar-Yam is a professor and the President of New England Complex Systems Institute. It’s his job to study and find scientific solutions to real-world problems like COVID-19. 

"The Lambda Variant is the latest in a string of variants that makes it more difficult for us to control the disease. They infect quicker and they burn through your lungs faster," Bar-Yam said. 

He’s concerned about this latest variant.

“This is not a mild disease and we should be doing everything we can to get the cases down. We should know by now that if it's not this variant it's going to be another that's going to really raise the bar in terms of danger to people and the difficulty in stopping it from spreading," he said. 

When Bar-Yam compares the Delta and Lambda variants, he said, “It's [Lambda] becoming a concern that maybe it will even be faster than the Delta as far as spreading."...