A team of Stanford researchers identified the strain, which originated in India.
The Stanford doctor who leads the laboratory that just identified this “double mutant” variant, Dr. Benjamin Pinsky, joined ABC7’s “Getting Answers” program.
First, describe when and how did your team create this specific lineage?
“We screened all the positives that arrived through the Stanford Clinical Virology Laboratory for mutations associated with worrying variants,” said Dr. Pinsky. “So we initially identified this through this process, using R2PCR similar to what we do for standard diagnostics of COVID-19. And so far we have sequenced a case and confirmed that it was, in fact, one of those double mutant variants that was recently identified in India. “
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Why is this variant being called a double mutant?
“It has two well-described mutations,” said Dr. Pinsky. “In the virus spike protein, this includes the L452R mutation, which is found in the California variant, and then has a mutation in another position, E484, which is found in the South Africa and Brazil variant.”
Is it more dangerous? More transmissible?
“We don’t know yet, although these mutations I spoke of have been associated with increased transmissibility,” said Dr. Pinsky. “In fact, in India, this new variant is responsible for 15 to 20% of cases in a given state.”
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Do you know if current vaccines will be effective against it?
“I don’t think we know whether vaccines will be less effective against this variant,” said Dr. Pinsky. “We have some information about experiments with individual mutations, suggesting that antibodies will be less able to neutralize this variant from India.”
Despite the uncertainty about the impacts of these new variants, Dr. Pinsky still encourages the public to get vaccinated.
“It is important to note that vaccines are very effective in preventing serious diseases, so everyone should continue to get vaccinated as soon as possible,” said Pinsky.
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