![Covid-19: researchers discover a new variant in New York](https://img.passeportsante.net/1000x526/2021-02-25/i99953-nouveau-variant-new-york.jpeg)
Two teams of American researchers have just discovered the presence of a new variant in New York City. As with other mutations, scientists fear that vaccines and antibody treatments will prove to be less effective against this new variant called B.1.526.
New variant of the coronavirus discovered in New York
While the United States has recorded more than 28 million cases of Covid-19, more than any other country in the world, researchers have just discovered a new variant of the coronavirus in New York. Indeed, the two teams of researchers (one from Caltech and another from Columbia University) who said they found the new New York variant this week report that it carries mutations that help it escape the virus. the body’s natural immune response. Named B.1.526, the new variant is said to have appeared for the first time in samples taken in the city last November.
Two versions of the coronavirus that are increasing in frequency
To arrive at this discovery, the researchers proceeded in a different way. The Caltech team discovered the B.1.526 variant by searching for mutations in hundreds of thousands of viral genetic sequences through a database called GISAID. They thus found two versions of the coronavirus which increase in frequency: one with the E484K mutation (also observed in South Africa and Brazil) and another with the S477N mutation. The two mutations grouped together in the form B.1.526 already represented in mid-February, about 27% of the viral sequences of New York.
As for the Columbia University team, the researchers discovered the new variant by sequencing 1,142 patient samples. They found that 12% of people with the coronavirus had been infected with the variant containing the E484K mutation. At the same time, specialists have also identified six cases of the British variant, two cases of the Brazilian variant and one case of the South African.
Antibody and vaccine treatments less effective against the variant
Although the mutation of a virus is a normal phenomenon, scientists are concerned about its transmission (the variant would be more contagious) and its resistance to treatments and vaccines. Indeed, several studies have already shown that variants of the E484K mutation would be less sensitive to vaccines than was the original form of the virus. In other words, if the vaccinated people can fight them, it will not prevent them from being sick (to a lesser extent) and from infecting other people and thus maintain the circulation of the virus.