Dahlia's interesting thread was an early warning; this news did not otherwise hit American news coverage yesterday. But it led on the front page of the Wall Street Journal this morning.
I read it carefully: the estimates are all over, from a third more lethal (only from 10 to 13 in a thousand people dead who catch the disease) to almost double, but we're not talking huge numbers here in the first place.
The research is so preliminary that I doubt it's true. It looks too likely to be a propaganda effort to me: scare people into remaining under government control by saying it's worse, it's worse, wear your mask, wear your mask, follow all government orders, don't protest, don't complain, don't go outside. I don't trust anything this preliminary at all, and besides, what can anyone do about it? The masks don't work, the lockdowns are killing the economy and starving people.
I suppose the British and European and American governments are all copying China's rigid control of the population. It does no good about the disease, which is just spreading faster, but governments love control.
None of this matters if mutations don't let the virus evade the vaccine. If it does, we'll be glad of our natural immune systems. But I don't think we are there yet.