The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has downplayed a novel French coronavirus variant first found in southeastern France, the New York Times reported Wednesday.
After the delta and omicron variants took the Biden administration by surprise, the novel B.1.640.2 variant has reportedly infected a number of French patients but has not yet reached American shores.
The W.H.O. tamped down concerns the variant will greatly spread throughout the globe. “That virus has had a lot of chances to pick up,” W.H.O. coronavirus manager Abdi Mahmud told the Times.
The variant was first discovered in southeastern France in a vaccinated person in October. It was subsequently databased in November with 46 mutations. “Only about 20 samples have been sequenced so far, experts said this week, and only one since early December,” the Times reported:
Abdi Mahmud, a Covid incident manager with the W.H.O., told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the variant had been on the agency’s radar since November, but added that it did not appear to have spread widely over the past two months.
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By contrast, the Omicron variant, which was first uploaded to Gisaid on Nov. 23, has more than 120,000 sequences in the database. (The vast majority of Omicron cases have not been sequenced.) It has been detected in at least 128 countries, according to the W.H.O., and is fueling record-high case numbers in many parts of the world.
Many Chinese coronavirus variants have appeared since the virus arrived on American shores. The reason why some variants metastasize and others do not is complex and is still studied by experts.
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