Like the Delta variant of COVID-19 continues its deadly sweep in the United States, officials say they are monitoring “very closely” a new variant that could prevent existing coronavirus antibodies.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday that the United States is taking the variant, called Mu, “very seriously,” but that it has not taken any importance in this country.
“We’re looking at it very closely. It really looks here, but it’s not even about to be dominant,” Fauci said. “As you know, the Delta is more than 99% dominant.”
Fauci said the Mu variant, technically known as B.1.621, has mutations that suggest it would “evade certain antibodies,” potentially including those from vaccines.
“But there isn’t a lot of clinical data to suggest that. It’s mostly in vitro lab data,” he added. “… Right now we don’t consider it an immediate threat.”
This week the World Health Organization designated Mu as a “variant of interest” and said more studies are needed to confirm whether the variant could bypass existing antibodies.
Viruses are known to mutate over time as they spread and not all variants will be able to persist. If a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, spreads more quickly, causes more serious illness, or decreases the effectiveness of current prevention or treatment options, it is classified as a more worrying variant. “
There are currently four “concern variants”: Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta. Delta, which appeared in the United States in the spring, is more contagious and constitutes the overwhelming majority of American cases.
Mu has been detected sporadically since he was first identified in Colombia in January, WHO officials said.
Colombian health official Marcela Mercado told a local radio station on Thursday that Mu was responsible for the country’s third wave of coronavirus infections from April to June. He said there were about 700 deaths a day during that time and that nearly two-thirds of the tests of people who died were positive for the Mu variant, according to AFP.
Last week, Colombia saw just under 14,000 new cases of COVID-19 and 530 new deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. Less than 30% of the country’s citizens are completely vaccinated.
According to the WHO, there have been “some larger outbreaks” of the variant reported in South America and Europe. The main regions of the variant are in Colombia and Ecuador.
“Although the global prevalence of the Mu variant among sequenced cases has decreased and is currently below 0.1%, the prevalence in Colombia (39%) and Ecuador (13%) has steadily increased,” he said. ‘WHO.