At the beginning of September, the World Health Organization said that it is monitoring the mu variant.
The mu variant — which is also known as the B.1.621 variant — was added to the WHO’s list of variants “of interest” because of reports of the variant evading vaccines.
Dr. Anthony Fauci , the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Fox News that while the department is keeping a close eye on the virus, the public need not worry too much.
“This variant has a constellation of mutations that suggests that it would evade certain antibodies, not only monoclonal antibodies but vaccine- and convalescent serum-induced antibodies. But there isn’t a lot of clinical data to suggest that, it is mostly laboratory in-vitro data,” Fauci said.
According to a report by Newsweek, the Mu variant has been detected in almost all states in America, only exempting Nebraska.
“The identification of variants like Mu, and the spreading of variants across the globe, highlights the need for L.A. County residents to continue to take measures to protect themselves and others,” Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of LA County Public Health said in a statement.
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Dr. Ferrer added, “This is what makes getting vaccinated and layering protections so important. These are actions that break the chain of transmission and limits COVID-19 proliferation that allows for the virus to mutate into something that could be more dangerous.”
Not much has been said about both variants, though– as clinical trials and observations continue. The WHO continues to monitor them but says the Delta variant that constitutes over 90% of all coronavirus cases in the United States right now and 80% of cases worldwide is the bigger problem.
“These viruses are all competing with each other for advantage to be the one that survives.” Dr. Anna Durbin, from the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said.
“We know that the lambda variant has some of the same mutations as the delta variant that we think (will) allow it to be more transmissible, so it would be difficult to outcompete the delta variant.”
