The UK variant of the coronavirus does not appear to cause more severe disease from COVID-19, according to a study published last week in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases. This variant, known as B.1.1.7, was first identified in Great Britain late last fall. It’s now the most common variant in the United States. When looking at patients hospitalized with COVID-19, researchers found no increased risk of severe disease, death or any other bad health outcomes in the patients with the variant strain of the virus. The study did confirm what we already knew, namely that this variant is more transmissible than other strains of the coronavirus.