Fauci says ‘mu’ coronavirus variant not ‘immediate threat’ — but US takes it seriously
The World Health Organization has added the “mu” coronavirus variant to its “variants of interest” list, joining four others, though it is not yet considered a threat in the U.S.
The earliest documented cases of the mu variant were detected in January in Colombia, and it has since spread to 38 other countries as of Aug. 29. The mu variant currently makes up less than 0.1% of sequenced cases globally, but its presence has “consistently increased” in Colombia (39%) and Ecuador (13%), the WHO said in a weekly update.
It’s unclear how many coronavirus infections in the U.S. are of the mu variant, but Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief White House medical adviser, said health officials are “keeping a very close eye on it.”
Still, it’s not “an immediate threat right now,” Fauci added during a White House COVID-19 briefing on Thursday. “It is rarely seen here, [and] it is not at all even close to being dominant.”
He noted that the delta variant currently makes up more than 99% of coronavirus cases in the U.S. It has sparked the pandemic’s fourth wave, sending an unprecedented number of vulnerable people to the hospital, including children too young for vaccination and adults — now younger than earlier waves — who choose not to get vaccinated.
The mu variant has been flagged by global health leaders because it has a “constellation of mutations that suggests it would evade certain antibodies” from infection, vaccination and some treatments, Fauci said.
“But there isn’t a lot of clinical data to suggest that,” he said. “It is mostly laboratory, in vitro data. Not to downplay it.”
Other variants that have been shown to evade vaccines’ defenses still have not overpowered them enough to render them useless, Fauci said. COVID-19 vaccines still protect against severe disease and death.
“Bottom line: We’re paying attention to it,” he said. “We take everything like that seriously.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not added the mu variant to its list of “variants of interest” or “variants of concern.”
This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 12:33 PM with the headline "Fauci says ‘mu’ coronavirus variant not ‘immediate threat’ — but US takes it seriously."
