COVID ‘Razor Blade Throat’ Variant Circulates in Missouri

A new COVID variant nicknamed “razor blade throat” is making its way through Missouri, and it appears to be living up to its name.

Dr. Steven Lawrence, Professor of Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis says the technical name for the variant is NB181, and while it’s not more severe than previous strains, it’s causing discomfort for many.

“You know, we don’t have the data to be able to say with certainty that it is, say, a really bad sore throat is more common with this compared to others. “But it doesn’t mean that everybody who’s going to get it would have a much more severe sore throat than others.”

He explains why it has people reporting sore throats that feel like swallowing razor blades

“The virus infects the cells within our throat and it actually does tissue damage. It destroys some of those cells and it leaves, you know, some raw spots and microscopic areas that are basically raw is what causes a lot of the throat pain.”

He says it’s also highly contagious.

“To put it into perspective, there’s a group of 10 people around, and none of them have had this particular COVID strain before, and somebody is infected with it and spends, you know, a couple of hours indoors in pretty close proximity, say in the same room with 10 people. It’s a pretty good chance, you know, six or seven are going to get it.”

He says the vaccines are holding up well and still offer strong protection.