Scientists continue to worry about the novel coronavirus variant from Brazil, more so than other variants that have popped up around the country.
What’s going on?
On Monday, officials with the Minnesota Department of Health identified the first case of the Brazil variant — named P.1 — in Minnesota.
- The variant has been seen as more transmissible than the current variant, or even those seen in South Africa and the United Kingdom, as I wrote about for the Deseret News.
Why it worries scientists
But scientists are especially worried about the Brazil variant because of how it wrecked Manaus, the Amazonian city in Brazil, where the mutation originated from.
- “If you were to ask me right now, what’s most concerning of all the things that I’ve heard so far, it’s the fact that they are reporting a sudden increase in cases in Manaus, Brazil,” said virus expert Jeremy Luban of University of Massachusetts, according to NPR. “Manaus already had 75% of people infected (in the spring of last year).”
Scientists have two big fears about the new variant, according to NPR.
- They don’t know why it exploded in Brazil.
- The variant has mutations that might evade antibodies and the COVID-19 vaccine, according to NPR.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, an adviser to President Joe Biden on the pandemic, told The New York Times that he is more worried about the Brazil variant than the UK or South African virus. He suggested that the current vaccines can defeat those mutations. But the Brazil variant might be more troublesome.
- “The amount of concern that I have between the U.K. variant, and the South African/Brazilian is much, much different,” Dr. Fauci said, according to The New York Times.