Thread by @DrEricDing

BREAKING—Oklahoma State Department of Health announced that it identified a cluster of 17 cases of the #B16172 variant, including 3 that were in fully vaccinated people. 2 others were partially vaccinated. Travel didn’t play a role.
oklahoman.com/story/news/202…

2) “Dr. Dale Bratzler, the chief COVID officer for the University of Oklahoma, said data indicates B.1.617.2 variant — also called an India variant for where it was first detected — is about 6 times [lower neutralization] than other variants to antibodies generated by vaccines.”

3) That said, “Department of Health officials said last week that vaccines are still thought to provide some protection against the India variant, and contact tracing efforts were underway to learn more about the infections.”

4) but “State Epidemiologist Jolianne Stone previously said variants pose the biggest threat to the relatively low levels of COVID-19 spread in the state.”

5) “Bratzler said he wasn’t surprised to see the breakthrough infections — when people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 become infected — associated with the B.1.617.2 variant “since it does appear to spread faster and be less inhibited by antibodies from vaccine.”

6) ““I think we're going to continue to see breakthrough infections occur,” he said at a Healthier Oklahoma Coalition news conference this week. “I think they're going to be more common with variant strains to which you don't have as good of protection.”

7) As of May 10, the state Department of Health had identified 258 vaccine breakthrough cases in Oklahoma.

8) The #B16172 India variant is surging globally, including in the UK where it has recently doubled in just over a week. See thread 🧵 below.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1394878655570997250

9) Notably, UK is dominated by the B117 variant that is 50% faster transmission… but yet, the Indian variant #B16172 still surging and becoming dominant. That’s bad.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1394444358766645251