The race between variants and vaccines is heating up. Can the Bay Area move forward?

The race between variants and vaccines is heating up, with the discovery of more worrisome variations of the coronavirus in California this week, despite increased inoculations and many Bay Area counties easing public health restrictions.

Public health officials on Wednesday confirmed California’s first case of a variant called P.1 that is wreaking havoc in Brazil; was found in a San Bernardino County resident. They also announced a fourth case in California of a variant of South Africa, this one in Santa Clara County. This case was in an individual who has not traveled anywhere recently, raising concerns that the variant is spreading in the community, albeit at very low levels.

These two variants are somewhat resistant to antibodies and can make vaccines less effective. Meanwhile, three more variants that are more infectious than previous versions of the virus are spreading rapidly across the state – two home grown variants now account for more than half of all cases in California.

The increase in variants is worrying, but not unexpected. In fact, the variants are consolidating at a slower pace than public health and infectious disease experts feared, raising hopes that vaccinations will keep them out. A fourth wave may not be entirely preventable, but it seems more and more likely that it will not be as destructive as the previous waves.

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