New research suggests that a new strain of the CCP virus—called B.1.526—is spreading quickly in New York City and features mutations associated with higher viral infectivity and greater resistance to antibodies—though experts caution more study is needed to verify the “fitness” of the mutant virus. Variants of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus—commonly known as the novel coronavirus—that were first identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa, and Brazil, have spread to multiple countries. As they spread, the variants constantly morph, with researchers looking for identifiable “spike mutations” that allow them to classify the mutant viruses into groupings, or lineages. “The changes seen have rarely affected viral fitness and almost never affected clinical outcome but the detailed effects of these mutations remain to be determined fully,” said the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), whose database was used by a Caltech research team in a study that suggests the B.1.526 …