How worried should we be about the Manaus variant? @whippletom investigates 🔍
The key question is not whether the Manaus variant contains worrying mutations; it does. The key question is whether it can spread those mutations here. So far at least, we have good reason to be hopeful it won’t, says @whippletom
Why? One answer, which has become something of a public health mantra, is that even if the vaccines don’t stop infection they will provide strong protection against severe disease 💉
An even better reason to be comforted, though, is the South African variant. Not only does it share the E484K mutation, it is also already in the country. More importantly, it has been in the country for several weeks and not seemed to spread
Perhaps the most concerning aspect of yesterday’s announcement is not the arrival of the Manaus variant — which was probably inevitable — but that one of those infected was able to slip through the net
Where and how did they conduct the test? Did they fill in the form incorrectly? Has he or she received the results? There’s no point having world-beating genomic sequencing without bureaucracy to match, says @whippletom
Read more analysis on the Manaus variant: thetimes.co.uk/article/how-wi…
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