There seems to be a variant that’s popped up on it’s own in Oregon where I live.
Eek! (See below)
If this link is behind a paywall, check out the second link. The story isn’t as complete as the NYT though, even though it’s an Oregon paper.
In Oregon, Scientists Find a Virus Variant With a Worrying Mutation
Scientists in Oregon have spotted a homegrown version of a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus that first surfaced in Britain — but now combined with a mutation that may make the variant less susceptible to vaccines.
The researchers have so far found just a single case of this formidable combination, but genetic analysis suggested that the variant had been acquired in the community and did not arise in the patient.
“We didn’t import this from elsewhere in the world — it occurred spontaneously,” said Brian O’Roak, a geneticist at Oregon Health and Science University who led the work. He and his colleagues participate in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s effort to track variants, and they have deposited
their results in databases shared by scientists.
The variant originally identified in Britain, called B.1.1.7, has been
spreading rapidly across the United States, and accounts for at least 2,500 cases in 46 states. This form of the virus is both
more contagious, and
more deadly, than the original version, and is expected to account for most infections in America in a few weeks.
The new version that surfaced in Oregon has the same backbone, but also a mutation — E484K, or
“Eek” — seen in variants of the virus circulating in South Africa, Brazil and
New York City.
Lab studies and
clinical trials in South Africa indicate that
the Eek mutation renders the current vaccines less effective by blunting the body’s immune response. (The vaccines still work, but the findings are worrying enough that Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have
begun testing
new versions of their vaccines designed to defeat the variant found in South Africa.)
OHSU researchers find UK COVID variant with mutation that could be less affected by vaccines