Just as it seems we're nearing the end of the coronavirus pandemic, we've been hearing of COVID-19 variants emerging from Brazil and the UK. 21 News spoke with experts on whether or not these variants will effect our efforts to get passed this pandemic and quite possibly cause a fourth surge.

"I think with the efforts made currently with vaccination, the likelihood of that is becoming less on a daily basis," said Dr. Thomas Traikoff, D.O. Mercy Health, North Lima Primary Care.

The most recent case was found in Michigan. The likelihood of the variant finding it's way to Ohio is pretty high.

"It normally takes about a month after the person's already caught the virus for you to get a sequence out, and that's if somebody is going absolutely break-neck pace," said Dr. Ben Neuman, Virology Expert at Texas A&M University. "So it probably already is in Ohio," he said.

With everything the world has had to endure over the last year, this kind of information can be very triggering.

Doctors say the good news is, COVID-19 vaccines are very likely to give full protection against anything you run into.

"For now, the vaccines do appear to be very effective against the UK variant, which means that we can still control nearly all of what's out there," said Neuman.

Doctors tell 21 News people are changing their behavior before allowing the vaccine to give us all the protection we need, to do so.

With variants on the rise, we'll have a better chance of controlling it, the more people get vaccinated.