While the covid-19 variants come from United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa it has received all the attention, there has been a worrying tension developing and spreading silently in California.
The new variant, which scientists call B.1.427 / B.1.429, which entered the radar in September 2020 is thought to spread faster than others. According to a new limited but worrying study, there are now concerns that it could be better at avoiding antibodies created by previous infection or a vaccine, and can cause more serious illnesses.
But is it really a cause for concern?
What is causing the alarm about the California variant?
“This variant is worrying because our data show that it is more contagious, more likely to be associated with serious illnesses and, at least, is partially resistant to neutralizing antibodies”, says Charles Chiu, an infectious disease physician and specialist in sequencing the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) who is the senior author of a prepress report laboratory studies and epidemiological data.
The data suggest that the new strain “should probably be designated as concern variant ensuring an urgent follow-up investigation ”, write the authors in their preprint, which has not been peer-reviewed and which, according to them, should be published online soon. “The devil is already here,” Chiu told the LA Times.
In other words, there is limited proof that the new strain found in California is more resistant to antibodies and is more likely to cause serious illness or fatalities.
On the subject of vaccine effectiveness, Chiu told the Times that “if we can vaccinate enough people, we will be able to dealing with these variants simply because we will not have continuous transmission. “
The same mitigation measures apply to new variants of the original coronavirus strain: wear a mask, distance yourself socially and don’t spend time indoors with people outside your home.
Other scientists more cautious with the California strain
However, Science Mag reported this week that other coronavirus experts say more data is needed before real conclusions can be drawn, noting that among patients with the variant, the study included less than 10 who were admitted to the ICU and less than 10 who died.
“If I were a reviewer, I would like to see more data from more infected people to substantiate that very provocative claim, ”says David O’Connor, an expert on viral sequencing at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who was not part of the research.
“I am increasingly convinced that this is transmitting more than others locally,” said William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health TH Chan who was not involved in the research, to The New York Times, referring to the contagious variant found in the UK Hanage added “But there are there is no evidence to suggest that it is at the same stage as B.1.1.7.“
For the study, the authors sequenced 2,172 genomes from virus samples captured from 300 patients in 44 California counties between September 1, 2020 and January 29, 2021.