- CBN Medical ReporterLorie Johnson joins us now

for more on these developments.

Lorie, how has this thing mutated?

What are the impacts now?

- Well Pat, researchers in Arizona

looked at 1,400 samplesfrom COVID-19 patients,

recent samples, and 90%of them had this mutation

that George was talking about

that makes the virus more,

easier to spread, more contagious.

And it's because, you'veseen those little spikes

on the outside of the coronavirus.

It makes them...

That's how the virus penetrates our cells

and then replicates, and it looks like

the mutation is in those spikes.

And so this needs to be studied further,

but that could explain, andmany researchers are saying

that could explain why we'reseeing such an explosion,

at least in Arizonaand, perhaps, elsewhere.

But the good news, Pat,is that it also appears

this mutation might makethe virus less deadly.

Let me repeat that.

This mutation might makethe virus less deadly,

also something that scientistsare going to look into

and further study, butthere is that hypothesis

because we have seen inArizona the death rate go down.

Of course we've seen increased testing

and that could attributeto the lower death rate,

but it could be thatthis particular mutation

is now making this COVID-19 coronavirus

more like the other coronaviruses

that we've seen associatedwith the common cold.

Remember, there are seven coronaviruses

that we know about in humans.

Four of them are associatedwith the common cold

and they are very widespread,but not that deadly.

The other two, SARS and MERS,

are less widespread, but deadlier.

- What about the impact onthe heart of this COVID?

- So now, we, we know...

We're talking about the long-term.

There's some question about the long-term,

perhaps even permanent heart damage,

that COVID-19 could cause.

We know that people who have heart issues

are twice at risk of dying from COVID-19

than people who don't have heart problems.

But there are now some reports

of people who hadCOVID-19, have recovered,

and are having heartproblems, cardiomyopathy.

That's when the heart has difficulty

pumping blood to the rest of the body.

So there are calls now

to study post-COVID-19 cardiac syndrome.

We know a doctor in New York City.

She had mild symptoms of COVID-19.

She's since recovered,

but now she's having difficulty breathing

and catching her breathand her heart is racing.

She went in and got checked

and she has cardiomyopathy.

She didn't have it before.

And so again, we're seeing some...

We need a lot more research

about the long-term impacts of COVID-19.

There's reason to believe

that there could be someneurological long-term impacts,

and we've seen from autopsies, Pat,

that there is damage, in many cases,

to the liver, kidneys, and lungs.

But we haven't seen thatdamage to the heart yet there

so this does need further study.

- What about a vaccine?

Are we any closer?

- A lot closer.

So there are many vaccine candidates

and it looks likethey're going to be going

into these large studies ofhundreds of thousands of people,

and if these studies turn out to be good,

if it shows that thevirus works and is safe,

then it could be available to people

in the United States bythe end of this year.

Some of the leading contenders

are already starting to massproduce the vaccine right now

so that if and when it'sapproved, it is ready to go.

The military might be involved

in getting it out toall the doctors' offices

and the most needy people at first.

- Good news.

Lorie, thank you so much.

Come back soon, okay.- My pleasure, thanks for-