Coronavirus strains first detected in California are officially ‘variants of concern,’ CDC says

Early studies suggest variants are more transmissible

The CDC has declared two coronavirus strains first detected in California to be “variants of concern,” meaning they may be more transmissible and harder to vaccinate against.

Early-stage research suggests the strains, known as B.1.427 and B.1.429, could be as much as 20 per cent more transmissible. In lab studies, antibodies from people who were already vaccinated seemed less effective at neutralising the variants.

Still, neither variant is considered one of “high consequence,” strains against which the Covid vaccine is much less effective.

The federal government recently paused shipments of an antibody treatment from Eli Lilly to California, Arizona, and Nevada, to reflect the rise in these variants which were “circulating in high numbers,” which could affect the viability of previously successful treatments.

"It has always been our view that additional antibodies from Lilly and others will need to be developed to address the evolution of the virus, including emerging variants that can differ by country or even by state," Eli Lilly told CNN, which reported on the change, on Tuesday.

Scientists discovered the new strains in December while searching for another variant, a fast-moving version of coronavirus from Britain. The California variety might’ve began spreading as early as last July, but kicked into gear around November.

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Researchers are still investigating the strains, but early studies awaiting publication in February suggested that the new variants are more risky, contributing to rapid spread in a San Francisco neighbourhood and across the state, where the variants generated up to two times more viral particles inside victims’ bodies.

Another recent study found that the California strains, which may be better at evading vaccines and the immune system, account for more than half of the infections in 44 counties, and may have a mutation that makes them better at binding to human cells.

Still, scientists note, effective public health interventions around the world have tamped down on variants before they became large problems.

“Fundamentally, it doesn’t change the direction we are going, which is we want to hold cases down to where we can get the pandemic under control. Simply having a more infectious variant circulating is not going to be the end of the world,” said Charles Chiu, a professor of laboratory medicine and infectious diseases at the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, told the Washington Post.

Viruses reproduce constantly which can cause genetic mutations, often with no effect, but sometimes making them both more or less impactful to humans than their original form.