Mu COVID variant that may resist vaccines found in 49 U.S. states
Officials are keeping a close eye on the variant but it only accounts for less than 1 percent of all U.S. cases.
www.newsweek.com
Nebraska is the only state in the United States to have not detected a case of the Mu variant of COVID-19, which may render vaccines less effective.
Since being first identified in Colombia in January, the Mu variant has spread to 41 countries, including the United States. Most prevalent in Hawaii and Alaska, the variant accounts for less than one percent of cases in the U.S., but its potential to be more transmissible or resist vaccines and natural immunity have health officials keeping tabs on the mutation.
At least one case of the Mu variant has been detected in the District of Columbia and every state in the U.S. aside from Nebraska, according to Outbreak.info, a website that provides open source data on COVID-19 variants.
California has reported the highest number of Mu variant samples, at 384 cases, but that only accounts for 0.2 percent of the total samples sequenced in the state. As of Friday, Los Angeles County had identified 167 Mu variant cases, according to the Department of Public Health. The cases were found in samples sequenced between June 19 and August 21, with the bulk of the cases being found in July.
Thankfully it only accounts for a very small number of cases. Hate to say this but hopefully the other variants outcompete it. We don't need a vaccine resistant variant right now.The World Health Organization labeled Mu a variant of interest on August 30 because its characteristics could make it more transmissible or resistant to vaccines. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has yet to make the same classification.
On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said officials were keeping a "close eye" on the Mu variant. Although it's been found in the United States, Fauci noted that it's "not at all even close" to being the dominant variant in the U.S. That distinction resides with the Delta variant, which accounts for more than 99 percent of cases.
"Even though it has not in essence taken hold to any extent here we always pay attention to at all times variants," Fauci said, acknowledging that laboratory data suggests it could resist monoclonal antibodies and the vaccine. "We don't consider it an immediate threat right now."