Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Here's what's known about the coronavirus variants

Here's what's known about the coronavirus variants

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said this week it had designated a coronavirus variant first seen in India as a "variant of interest," adding it to the growing collection of viral variants it's keeping an eye on.

Vaccine makers are so worried about the chance new variants will escape the protection offered by immunization that they are already testing booster shots and tweaking their vaccine formulas to specifically target some of the more troubling variants.

And doctors around the world are warning that even more variants will arise as the virus continues to evolve inside the bodies of the tens of millions of people it is infecting.

The CDC has designated three levels of variants: variants of interest, which have the potential to be dangerous but haven't caused much disruption yet; variants of concern, which are more contagious, evade some treatments, cause more severe disease or get past diagnostic tests; and variants of high consequence, which significantly evade the effects of vaccines or treatments.

"Currently there are no SARS-CoV-2 variants that rise to the level of high consequence," CDC says.

Here's what's known about the variants of interest and variants of concern:

Variants of interest


In laboratory tests, all the CDC-designated variants of interest have been found to resist the immune attack in blood taken from people who have recovered from Covid-19, as well as from people who have been vaccinated.

B.1.526 - First seen in New York last November, B.1.526 has what's called a 484 mutation. To understand the variants, it's important first to understand the mutations that characterize them. The E484K mutation is a change in the part of the virus called the spike protein -- that's the knobby structure that sticks out from the surface of the virus. The change, in a region called the receptor binding domain, makes the virus attach more easily to the cells it infects and also makes the virus less recognizable to the immune system.

Tests show it can in theory resist the effects of Eli Lilly's combined monoclonal antibody treatment, although it's not clear if that translates into treatment failure, the CDC says. Regeneron's antibody cocktail treatment for Covid-19 seems to work against it. It has also been shown to resist the immune attack in blood taken from people who have recovered from Covid-19, as well as from people who have been vaccinated. It accounted for just under 9% of samples sequenced in the US as of April 10.

New CDC research published this week shows it's not associated with more severe infection or a greater risk of reinfection.

B.1.526.1 - Also first seen in New York, B.1.526.1 has a different pattern of mutations when compared to the original strain sequenced from China, including one called L452R that seems to help the virus infect cells more easily while at the same time making it harder for antibodies to attack.

B.1.617 - First seen in India in February, this one is sometimes misleadingly called a "double mutant" because it has both an L452R mutation and a 484 mutation -- although not quite the same 484 mutation seen in other worrying variants.

B.1.617.1, B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3 - These were all first seen in India, and were circulating before B.1.617. They all have the same mutations as B.1.617, plus a few extras.

Although Indian officials have said these new variants are driving the spike in coronavirus cases that is currently overwhelming the country's hospitals, the director of India's National Center for Disease Control, Sujeet Singh, said this week the evidence is lacking. "We have not been able to establish the epidemiological and clinical correlation completely yet," Singh said Wednesday.

British health officials, however, upgraded B.1.617.2 to a variant of concern Friday because of its rapid spread there. "There is currently insufficient evidence to indicate that any of the variants recently detected in India cause more severe disease or render the vaccines currently deployed any less effective," Public Health England said in a statement.

Dr. Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, said during a Royal Society webcast Thursday that the B.1.617 variants probably fall in the middle in terms of danger between B.1.1.7, which seems almost fully susceptible to vaccines and treatments, and B.1.351, which has been documented to infect people who recovered from infection with earlier variants of coronavirus, and also to partly evade the protection offered by vaccines.

B.1.525 - First seen in the UK and Nigeria, this one carries the E484K mutation. It's been found in fewer than 1% of samples tested in the United States. That surveillance is incomplete. This week, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the United States is now sequencing approximately 8% of the country's roughly 450,000 weekly Covid-19 cases.

P.2 - Circulating in Brazil since last year, this variant also carries the worrying E484K mutation and has not been found widely globally.

Variants of concern


CDC defines these as variants for which there is evidence they are more transmissible, cause more severe disease, fail to respond to treatment, evade immune response or fail to be diagnosed by standard tests.

B.1.1.7 - The B.1.1.7 variant first seen in the UK has been shown to be at least 50% more transmissible and some evidence suggests it may cause more severe disease, although at least one study found no evidence of this. It carries 23 mutations, including one called N501Y that increases transmission.

It accounted for 60% of all samples tested in the US as of April 10, according to CDC. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates it now accounts for virtually all new infections in 23 states.

It's fully susceptible to monoclonal antibody treatments and vaccines.

"We are confident that the vaccines that are least currently available in the UK work against that, for practical purposes," Whitty said.

A team in the Gulf state of Qatar tested the effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine during a time when Qatar was seeing circulation of the B.1.351 variant first seen in South Africa and the B. 1.1.7 variant first seen in the UK.

"The estimated effectiveness of the vaccine against any documented infection with the B.1.1.7 variant was 89.5% at 14 or more days after the second dose. The effectiveness against any documented infection with the B.1.351 variant was 75%," the researchers wrote in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine.

B.1.351 - First seen in South Africa, this variant has both the E484K mutation that is linked with immune escape and the N501Y mutation suspected of helping make other variants more contagious. It has been shown to be 50% more transmissible and evades Lilly's dual monoclonal antibody treatment but not others. Blood tests and real-life use both suggest it can infect people who have recovered from coronavirus and also people who have been vaccinated against Covid-19.

Vaccine makers trying to get out ahead of the new variants by developing booster shots have focused on B.1.351, as it's the variant scientists most fear could elude vaccine protection. Moderna said Wednesday that a booster shot of its vaccine revs up the immune response against B.1.351 and another variant, P.1.
The good news is it does not seem to cause more severe disease, as initially feared, said Dr. Salim Abdool Karim, Director of the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa.

"It turns out in South Africa the evidence we have now is that it is not more severe," he told the Royal Society briefing. It does, however, escape the human immune response to a significant degree. It spread rapidly across South Africa, Karim has reported, accounting for 11% of viruses sequenced in October and 87% of samples sequenced in December.

"If you were infected with the virus before, you are not fully protected this time," Karim said. "About one-half of the individuals who were exposed did get infected again."

P.1 - First seen in Brazil, it also has both the E484K and N501Y mutations, with more than 30 others. It has been demonstrated to evade the effects of Lilly's monoclonal antibody treatment but not one made by Regeneron. Blood tests show it might escape both natural and vaccine-elicited immune responses.

B.1.427 - First seen in California, this one has the L452R mutation. CDC says it's about 20% more transmissible and may partly resist the effects of Lilly's monoclonal antibody treatment. Blood tests suggest it might be able to re-infect people who have been vaccinated against Covid or who have recovered but that has not been demonstrated in real life yet.

B.1.429 -- Another so-called California variant, this one has the L452R mutation along with others and is similar to B.1.427 in other ways. It accounted for 4% of samples sequenced nationally as of April 10.

Last month a team at the University of California, San Francisco did in-depth sequencing of more than 2,000 samples from people who tested positive for coronavirus across California. They found the B.1.427/B.1.429 variants increased from no samples in September to half of all samples taken in January.

They seem to replicate better in the noses of infected people, something that could explain their faster spread, the UCSF team, led by Dr. Charles Chiu, reported in the journal Cell. But they are not as transmissible as the B.1.1.7 variant.

AI Disclaimer: An advanced artificial intelligence (AI) system generated the content of this page on its own. This innovative technology conducts extensive research from a variety of reliable sources, performs rigorous fact-checking and verification, cleans up and balances biased or manipulated content, and presents a minimal factual summary that is just enough yet essential for you to function as an informed and educated citizen. Please keep in mind, however, that this system is an evolving technology, and as a result, the article may contain accidental inaccuracies or errors. We urge you to help us improve our site by reporting any inaccuracies you find using the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of this page. Your helpful feedback helps us improve our system and deliver more precise content. When you find an article of interest here, please look for the full and extensive coverage of this topic in traditional news sources, as they are written by professional journalists that we try to support, not replace. We appreciate your understanding and assistance.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Emails Leaked: How Passenger Luggage Became a Side Income for Airport Workers
Polish MEP: “Dear Leftists - China is laughing at you, Russia is laughing, India is laughing”
Western Europe Records Hottest June on Record
BRICS Expands Membership with Indonesia and Ten New Partner Countries
Elon Musk Founds a Party Following a Poll on X: "You Wanted It – You Got It!"
China’s Central Bank Consults European Peers on Low-Rate Strategies
France Requests Airlines to Cut Flights at Paris Airports Amid Planned Air Traffic Controller Strike
Poland Implements Border Checks Amid Growing Migration Tensions
Emirates Airline Expands Market Share with New $20 Million Campaign
Amazon Reaches Milestone with Deployment of One Millionth Robot
Yulia Putintseva Calls for Spectator Ejection at Wimbledon Over Safety Concerns
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
Amazon Reaches Major Automation Milestone with Over One Million Robots
Extreme Heat Wave Sweeps Across Europe, Hitting Record Temperatures
Meta Announces Formation of Ambitious AI Unit, Meta Superintelligence Labs
Robots Compete in Football Tournament in China Amid Injuries
China Unveils Miniature Insect-Like Surveillance Drone
Marc Marquez Claims Victory at Dutch Grand Prix Amidst Family Misfortune
Germany Votes to Suspend Family Reunification for Asylum Seekers
Budapest Pride Parade Draws 200,000 Participants Amid Government Ban
Southern Europe Experiences Extreme Heat
Xiaomi's YU7 SUV Launch Garners Record Pre-Orders Amid Market Challenges
Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's Lavish Wedding in Venice
Russia Launches Largest Air Assault on Ukraine Since Invasion
Massive Anti-Government Protests Erupt in Belgrade
Iran Executes Alleged Israeli Spies and Arrests Hundreds Amid Post-War Crackdown
Hungary's Prime Minister Criticizes NATO's Role in Ukraine
EU TO HUNGARY: LET THEM PRIDE OR PREP FOR SHADE. ORBÁN TO EU: STAY IN YOUR LANE AND FIX YOUR OWN MESS.
Hungarian Scientist to Conduct 30 Research Experiments on the International Space Station
NATO Members Agree to 5% Defense Spending Target by 2035
NATO Leaders Endorse Plan for Increased Defence Spending
U.S. Crude Oil Prices Drop Below $65 Amid Market Volatility
International Astronaut Team Launched to Space Station
Macron and Merz: Europe must arm itself in an unstable world
Germany and Italy Under Pressure to Repatriate $245bn of Gold from US Vaults
Iran Intensifies Crackdown on Alleged Mossad Operatives After Sabotage Claims
Trump Praises Iran’s ‘Very Weak’ Response After U.S. Strikes and Presses Israel to Pursue Peace
Oil Prices Set to Surge After US Strikes Iran
BA and Singapore Airlines Cancel Dubai Flights Amid Middle East Tensions
Trump Faces Backlash from MAGA Base Over Iran Strikes
Meta Bets $14 B on Alexandr Wang to Drive AI Ambitions
FedEx Founder Fred Smith, ‘Heart and Soul’ of the Company, Dies at 80
Chinese Factories Shift Away from U.S. Amid Trump‑Era Tariffs
Pimco Seizes Opportunity in Japan’s Dislocated Bond Market
Labubu Doll Drives Pop Mart to Status as China’s Most Valuable Toy Maker
Global Coal Demand Defies Paris Accord Goals
United States Conducts Precision Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Sites
US strikes Iran nuclear sites, Trump says
Telegram Founder: I Will Leave My Fortune to Over 100 of My Children
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
×