Thread by @DrEricDing

WORRIED—NYC’s native variant is now concerning Fauci—it has some potential for trouble. 735 cases of #B1526 variant that emerged in New York City have now been identified in US, including 585 in the last 2 weeks—it is now found in 15 states.🧵#COVID19 bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

2)“It’s not particularly happy news,” said Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist. “But just knowing about it is good because then we can perhaps do something about it.”
Nussenzweig said he was more worried about variant in New York than one in California.
nytimes.com/2021/02/24/hea…

3) The variant, known scientifically as B.1.526, likely started off in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan, Anthony Fauci said in a Monday news briefing. It is one of five concerning variants now being tracked nationally by health officials.

4) “Recent research suggests B.1.526 needs to be closely watched “for its ability to evade both monoclonal antibody and, to a certain extent, the vaccine-induced antibody,” said Fauci,

“It’s something we take very, very seriously,” Fauci said.

5) “The variant may have arisen in November in immunocompromised people who remained sick despite treatment over a long period of time, according to recent research. Fauci said immunocompromised people should get vaccinated. “absolutely, yes,” he said.

6) “Absolutely, yes, because that’s not only important for them for their own health. But that could be the breeding ground of the variant and the emergence of a variance.”

7) Other experts said the sudden appearance of coronavirus variants was worrying.
“Given involvement of E484K or S477N, combined with the fact that the New York region has a lot of standing immunity from the spring wave, this is definitely one to watch,” said Kristian Andersen

8) Dr. Ho's team reported in January that the monoclonal antibodies made by Eli Lilly, and one of the monoclonal antibodies in a cocktail made by Regeneron, are powerless against the variant identified in South Africa 🇿🇦 (with E484K). biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

9) Notably, “ #B1351 is markedly more resistant to neutralization by convalescent plasma (~11-33 fold) & vaccinee sera (~6.5-8.6 fold). B.1.351 & emergent variants with similar spike mutations present new challenges for mAb therapy & threaten the efficacy of current vaccines.”

10) back to current NYC variant—“At this level of cases, with variants spreading, we stand to completely lose the hard-earned ground we have gained,” Walensky said. “These variants are a very real threat to our people and our progress.”

11) “Last week, researchers said #B1526 was quickly gaining ground in the city.
Anthony West, of CalTech, first raised the possibility that some portion of vaccine-induced immune response “might be less effective because of the mutations” in the New York variant.

12) “It’s not just the total number that have been sequenced, it’s also the mutations that it has, and how widespread it is,” Armstrong said.

13) “Whether the variant is more contagious or has worrisome features is unknown, the CDC’s Armstrong said. One possibility is that the New York strain is taking off because of random “founder effects -- basically a particular virus being in the right place at the right time,”

14) Rochelle Walensky, the chief of the CDC, again warned that Covid-19 cases appeared to have halted their decline, leveling off at what is still a high level.

She said variants and the case load could combine to reignite the pandemic before vaccinations take hold.