First we had the Covid-19 virus and then it morphed into the Delta variant and now the new variant is called Mu….
This week the World Health Organization named a new “variant of interest” of the coronavirus, called the Mu variant. It was first found in Colombia in January 2021, and has been found in about 39 countries so far.
Mu has changes, called mutations, which mean it might be able to evade some of the protection we get from COVID vaccines.
But one reassuring element is that, despite being around since January 2021, it doesn’t seem to be outcompeting Delta, the dominant variant across most of the world.
If Mu was truly a really bad variant, we would have expected to have started to see indications of this, and we haven’t yet.
This week the World Health Organization named a new “variant of interest” of the coronavirus, called the Mu variant. It was first found in Colombia in January 2021, and has been found in about 39 countries so far.
Mu has changes, called mutations, which mean it might be able to evade some of the protection we get from COVID vaccines.
But one reassuring element is that, despite being around since January 2021, it doesn’t seem to be outcompeting Delta, the dominant variant across most of the world.
If Mu was truly a really bad variant, we would have expected to have started to see indications of this, and we haven’t yet.
What’s a variant of interest?
An impressive element of our COVID response has been frequent genomic sequencing, which we haven’t done before on this scale. This tracks and maps the evolution of the virus in real time, as it adapts and mutates.
Some mutations will be detrimental to the virus, but some will be beneficial, allowing it to spread better, escape the protection offered by vaccines or even evade COVID tests.
If there are changes to the virus that mean it looks like it has the potential to do more harm, then we might designate it a “variant of interest”.
Mu has mutations that might confer some of these properties, but evidence is still emerging.
The four other variants of interest are Eta, Iota, Kappa and Lambda.
There are many question that sane people have about the rise of a new health threat…..here are some questions and answers…
A coronavirus variant known as “mu” or “B.1.621” was designated by the World Health Organization as a “variant of interest” earlier this week and will be monitored by the global health body as cases continue to emerge across parts of the world. It is the fifth variant of interest currently being monitored by the WHO.
Q: Where was it first detected and where is it now?
A: The variant was first detected in Colombia in January 2021, where cases continue to rise. It has since been identified in more than 39 countries, according to the WHO, among them the United States, South Korea, Japan, Ecuador, Canada and parts of Europe.
Q: How widespread is mu in the United States?
A: About 2,000 mu cases have been identified in the United States, so far, according to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), the largest database of novel coronavirus genome sequences in the world. Most cases have been recorded in California, Florida, Texas and New York among others.
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/heres-what-we-know-about-the-mu-variant/
If you are concerned then learn all you can about this variant and adjust your life to stay safe and well….
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