A coronavirus variant that spread in New York City, the U.S. center of the virus last year, may be more resistant to vaccines, The New York Times reported Wednesday.
The B.1.526 variant is observable in samples dating back to at least November. Researchers at Caltech and Columbia University have conducted studies on the variant, although neither has been evaluated or published.
Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University who was not involved in any of the studies, told the Times he considered the variant more worrying than another in California.
“This is not very good news,” Nussenzweig said. “But just knowing about it is good, because then we can do something about it.”
Both the California and New York variants differ from one presumably originated in Britain, which is on track to become the most common form of the virus by the end of March in the US.
Columbia researchers said that patients with the virus mutation were on average six years older and that they had a higher risk of being admitted to the hospital. Patients were geographically grouped in suburbs in northern Manhattan such as Inwood and Washington Heights, but there were also cases in other boroughs and parts of the metropolitan area.
“We see cases in Westchester, in the Bronx and Queens, the lower part of Manhattan and in Brooklyn,” David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, told the newspaper. ‘So it looks like it’s widespread. This is not one outbreak. ”
In general, it appears that the variants are not completely resistant to vaccines, Andrew Read, an evolutionary microbiologist at Penn State University, told the Times.
“These things are a little less well controlled by vaccine, but they are not so big that it can scare me,” he said. In general, Read said the need to change the vaccines to offset new strains is not a major concern compared to a vaccine, ‘he said. “I would say the glass is three-quarters full, compared to the previous year.”