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DENVER (KDVR) — As a new strain of the coronavirus makes headlines for effectively shutting down the United Kingdom, concerns start bubbling about how the virus mutates, and what it means for the efficacy of a vaccine.

“This particular mutant strain was first detected back in September so that’s important for people to know, this didn’t arise just last week,” said The Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Health Admiral Brett Giroir.

Giroir says it appears this strain of the virus could be more contagious, but also points out the spike in cases in the United Kingdom could be due to super spreader events.

“What we don’t have any evidence for, nor do we have any reason to believe it, is that it’s more dangerous,” Giroir said.

Turns out there have been hundreds of mutant strains of COVID-19 since the virus was first discovered a year ago in China. Mutating is a natural part of what viruses do, sometimes out of error, sometimes to survive.

“Literally it’s like copying by hand and if you were to write the same sentence 100 times, at some point you’re gonna make an error, and then it just perpetuates the error,” said Director of Infection Prevention at UCHealth Dr. Michelle Barron. “The word could completely change the meaning of what you actually intended, or sometimes it’s just a misspelling and it doesn’t change the intent of what you wrote.”

The big question: Will our vaccines work against mutated strains? The answer lies in how the current vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna target  the virus. These vaccines use mRNA to show the body how to create the spike protein found on the coronavirus, so the body can recognize and fight it if you get infected down the road.

“We have no evidence, nor do we believe, that this virus will evade the vaccine,” Giroir said when referencing the mutated strain of the virus. “That spike protein, it doesn’t have one little signature on it, it’s got a whole bunch of them. So even if one part of it changes, your body is still making antibodies to all the rest of the spike protein, so it’s not just one shot on goal, you have dozens of shots on goal.”

While the unique strain surging in the UK has not been officially identified in the United States, Giroir says in all likelihood it is already in the U.S.