According to a new study, seven new coronavirus variants have emerged in the US since last summer – and scientists are worried that they may be more contagious.
The new variants – each named after a bird – were set out in a 25-page medical study published online Sunday, which has yet to be judged by a peer.
The variants are the same because each mutates the 677th amino acid of the coronavirus, which is found at the ‘peak’ that the virus uses to attach itself to healthy cells, causing the fear that the changes may make them more contagious.
“This piece of Spike is important because it is close to a regional key to virulence,” Vaughn Cooper, one of the senior authors of the study and director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine, told CNN.
The mutations have been found by scientists across the country performing genetic sequencing on positive COVID-19 tests.
They are:
- ‘Robin 1’, which ‘occurs in more than 30 US states but dominates in the Middle East’, according to the study. It was first detected in August.
- ‘Robin 2’, first found in a sample collected in Alabama in early October. Consequently, it is most common in the Southeast.
- ‘Pelican’, first spotted in Oregon in late October. However, it has been found in 12 other states and is the only variant of the seven found so far abroad that appears on tests in Australia, Denmark, India and Switzerland.
- ‘Yellowhammer’, which like ‘Robin 2’ is most common in the southeastern US. It only appears in a sample from the end of November.
- “Bluebird”, which first appeared in August and is most common in the Northeast.
- “Quails”, which occur mostly in opposite corners of the USA, Northeast and Southwest. It was first detected in early October.
- ‘Mockingbird’, first found in late November and common in the south-central USA, as well as along the East Coast.
However, an overwhelming majority of positive coronavirus samples are never genetically traced, so it is unclear how widespread the variant may be and where it originated.
“I would currently hesitate to provide a place of origin for any of these generations,” Emma Hodcroft, another co-author of the study and an epidemiologist at the University of Bern, told the New York Times.
It is also impossible at this time to say whether the mutations are indeed more virulent, as the available data are insufficient to determine whether they really spread at an accelerated rate, or only benefited from conditions conducive to infection, such as a carrier attending an event for a superspreader.
However, it has been found that other international varieties, especially the British strain, which have been detected in the country, also in New York, are significantly more contagious than the coronavirus in the garden, which complicates the attempts to destroy the deadly bug forever.