Effects of a Major Deletion in the SARS-CoV-2 Genome on the Severity of Infection and the Inflammatory Response An Observational Cohort Study

The authors retrospectively identified patients from a prospective observational cohort study who had been screened for the SARS-CoV-2 variant with a 382-nucleotide deletion in the open reading frame 8 region of the genome. They found that infection with the variant only was associated with lower odds in comparison to those infected with wild-type virus only of developing hypoxia requiring supplemental oxygen, which the authors used as their primary endpoint and indicator of severe COVID-19.