Viruses mutate all the time, including the coronavirus that has caused the global Covid-19 pandemic.
Although most of the changes are innocuous, several mutants have sparked alarm, and three variants that emerged in the U.K., South Africa, and Brazil have caused particular concern as they spread worldwide. Studies suggest they are more contagious, and some evidence points to one of them being more deadly and another driving reinfections.
Vaccine developers are working on new versions after early data from South Africa indicated AstraZeneca Plc’s inoculation was less effective against the variant circulating there.
During replication, a virus often undergoes genetic mutations that may create what are called variants. Some mutations weaken the virus; others may yield some advantage that enables the variant to proliferate. Variants with distinctly different physical characteristics may be co-termed a strain. A variant that deviates significantly from its viral ancestors may be identified as a new lineage or branch on the evolutionary tree. In general discourse, however, the terms are often used interchangeably.
The World Health Organization uses the term “variants of concern” to signify strains that pose additional risks to public health, and “emerging variants of interest” for those that warrant close monitoring because of their potential risk. These have been assigned names or codes by the various research groups and public health agencies investigating them. So far, the WHO has identified three variants of concern and three variants of interest.
The variant that emerged in England in September 2020, B.1.1.7, contributed to a surge in cases that sent the U.K. back into lockdown in January. Other countries followed, particularly in Europe. It became the dominant strain in the U.S. in early April.
In southern Africa, hospitals faced pressure from a resurgence driven by another variant, 501Y.V2.
Brazilian researchers, meanwhile, have warned that a so-called P.1 variant spotted in Manaus, Amazonas state, in December 2020 may have driven a surge in cases that’s strained the health system and led to oxygen shortages.
The WHO said in mid-April it is reviewing whether to add a strain designated B.1.617, first recorded in India in October, to its variant of interest list, as India has done. This one is reported to harbor two key mutations that are known to reduce — but not eliminate — the ability of antibodies generated by either a previous infection or vaccination to fight it.
Rapidly, aided initially by year-end holidays traditionally associated with family and social gatherings. As of April 13, imported cases or community transmission of the B.1.1.7 variant from the U.K. had been reported in 132 countries, according to the World Health Organization. It also had become the most common strain in the U.S. As of April 13, scientists have found the 501Y.V2 variant that first appeared in South Africa in August 2020 in 82 countries, while 52 countries are reported to have detected the P.1 variant first seen in Brazil. Insufficient surveillance in most countries, including the U.S., has obscured the recognition of variants circulating in many places.
Broadly, they pose concerns of varying degrees. These relate to their transmissibility, or propensity to spread the severity of illness they cause, neutralization capacity, or the likelihood they will infect people who have recovered from a previous bout of Covid-19, and potential impact on vaccination through their ability to evade the protection that immunizations are designed to generate.
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