The World Health Organization has recently classified the COVID-19 mu variant as a “variant of interest”. Spectrum News examined what health professionals know about it and the impact the mu variant has on Florida. Here are five things to know:
1. What is the mu variant?
According to the World Health Organization’s weekly COVID-19 epidemiological update released on August 31, mu is a strain of COVID-19 that was first identified in January in Colombia.
“The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate the potential properties of the immune leak,” the report says.
Dr. Nicole Iovine, an infectious disease specialist and chief epidemiologist at UF Health Hospital in Gainesville, said it means current vaccines may not provide a higher level of protection against mu compared to other variants.
“We don’t have a clear idea of how many vaccinated people, for example, are expected to develop an advanced infection with mu, say, compared to delta or any of the other variants,” Iovine said.
The WHO classified mu as a variant of interest.
2. What is the difference between a “variant of interest” and a “variant of concern?”
Unlike mu, some variants, including the delta, have been classified as worrying variants by the WHO.
Dr. Michael Teng, a virologist and associate professor of medicine at the University of South Florida, compared the classification system to a traffic light.
“At the green level, the variant of interest is what is mu, and that’s the lowest rating type. This is a variant that really does something in nature that the WHO and CDC want to track.” said Teng.
In Mu’s case, Teng said the action was becoming the dominant variant in Colombia.
“Variants of concern are like amber light,” Teng said. “So it would be like delta, like the alpha and beta and gamma variants, which have actually taken possession at some point in several countries and have some worrying features.”
Teng said the examples are the high level of transmission of the alpha and delta variants.
3. What is the extension of the mu variant?
It seems that Mu is very rare now. According to the outbreak.info online database, mu accounts for less than half a percent of global COVID cases. CDC data show that it accounted for only 1% of U.S. cases last week. Florida has more cases of the mu variant than any other state except California. Outbreak.info shows that 305 cases have been reported here. Teng said direct flights from Colombia to Florida are one of the possible reasons why this number is higher than in other states. Iovine said it is important to keep this total in perspective. “If you look at the total number of cases we have in Florida … 305 is very small, relatively speaking,” he said.
Dra. Nicole Iovine, chief epidemiologist at the hospital @UFHealth explains what “immune leakage” means and what we know so far, or not, about it #mu. @ BN9 # bn9covid19 pic.twitter.com/HW26RrzrWX
– Sarah Blazonis (@SarahBlazonis) September 9, 2021
4. What impact could the delta variant have on mu propagation?
The WHO said it plans to control the mu in South America, particularly the way it circulates with the delta.
“We don’t know to what extent it competes with the delta,” Teng said. “Delta is significantly more transmissible than any of the other variants we’ve seen before, and so we’ve seen the delta basically take over the world.”
Iovine said that unless delta cases decrease, mu is likely to find it very difficult to spread.
“If you had to have delta and mu in a boxing ring, the delta will win. It’s much more transmissible, it gets to much higher levels. So the delta will always win in that fight,” Iovine said.
5. Should we be especially concerned about mu?
Teng and Iovine say no. According to Teng, very recent evidence suggests that, despite its mutations, mu is still susceptible to the immunity accumulated from vaccines.
“We’ve had a bit of a drop in the effectiveness of the beta and gamma vaccine, and it seems to be less with mu than with gamma. So the vaccine works better against mu than with beta or gamma,” Teng said.
Iovine offers words of caution.
“One thing I would say, however, that we have learned through this pandemic is that things can change. As long as there are a lot of unvaccinated people, the virus will continue to mutate and we will continue to have variants. I think the nightmare scenario would be if it arose. a variant that had delta transmissibility and had a significant vaccine leak “.