COVID-19 Variant / Mutation Primer, page 1

Hello ATS! Last night I ran across an article that explained all the existing variants of our lovely CV-19 specter. The information comes from Maddie Burakoff (from Milwaukee) and was linked to a web page I frequent (www.baynews9.com...).

It is important to note that none of the variants so far seem to be true “escape mutants” — ones that can completely get around the vaccines’ protection — Wisconsin state epidemiologist Ryan Westergaard said at a briefing (sw-ke.facebook.com...). [31 July 2021].

As to a nagging question of how these variants are named, see this link: www.newscientist.com... It describes how the Greek alphabet is used to simplify communications to the public and will only be used for variants of concern. No idea what happens if/when they run out of Greek letters, but I'd imagine they'd devolve into technical nomenclature, such as B.1.1.7.

So, without further ado... to summarize (and plagiarize) the article:

Alpha, formerly known as the B.1.1.7 variant, first turned up in the United Kingdom in September. The variant quickly grew to dominate cases in the U.K. and across Europe, raising alarm bells and fueling new surges in infections.

Beta, or B.1.351, was first detected in South Africa in September. The variant quickly took over in South Africa, at one point making up nearly all new cases in the country. Beta was first detected in the U.S. in January.

Gamma, or P.1, variant was first reported in December, in Japanese travelers who had recently returned from Brazil.

Delta, or B.1.671.2, is the latest variant of concern. It was first identified in India late last year. Since it first arrived in the U.S. in March, the delta variant has seen a steep rise. It now accounts for around 83% of new cases in the country.

Epsilon, downgraded from the WHO list.

Zeta, downgraded from the WHO list.

Eta, or B.1.525, was first detected in Nigeria and the U.K. in December.

Theta, downgraded from the WHO list.

Iota, also known as B.1.526, was first identified in the U.S. in November. Iota spread rapidly in New York City early in the year.

Kappa, or B.1.617.1, was first found in India in October.

Lambda variant, or C.37, first showed up in Peru in December.

Hope this was useful information!