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The Bristol variant of the coronavirus was first detected in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday.
Research on the variant shows that it has the same composition as the Kent strain in the UK, but with an additional mutation on the spike protein E484K.
Public Health England (PHE) has rated the Bristol variant as one of the four variants of concern in the UK due to its potential impact on Covid-19 vaccines.
“E484K is currently the mutation with the most evidence to cause an antigenic shift,” PHE said in a statement last week. “Several independent studies showing the impact of different antigenic variants have concluded that E484K is among the single mutations with the greatest impact.”
Scientists tested Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine against the E484K and N501Y mutations, both of which were found in British and South African variants. The study found that the vaccine still seemed to work, but was slightly less effective against the virus.
No mutations have so far been proven to make coronavirus vaccines ineffective, but they have raised concerns among healthcare professionals about how quickly the virus has transformed. Health officials have been pushing for the public to be vaccinated quickly to avoid the emergence of a mutation that could severely affect the vaccine.
CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky warned of the impact of these variants during a White House coronavirus press briefing on Wednesday.
These variants could jeopardize progress, Dr Walensky said, at a time when the number of cases and hospitalizations in the United States declined by about 20 percent on a seven-day moving average from last week.
The first variant that raised concerns in the UK was B.1.1.7, which has now been detected in 41 states and the District of Columbia. Due to the variant’s alleged high transmissibility, experts have warned that it could become the country’s main mutation by March.
Now the E484K mutation has also been detected in the United States.
In a separate report released by the CDC on Wednesday, Zambian researchers explained the rapid rise in Covid-19 cases in Zambia and how it contributed to the B.1.351 variant, which was first detected in South Africa.
“The spread of variant B.1.351 is of public health concern due to the potential for increased transmissibility and, consequently, increased cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” the researchers wrote.
The B.1.351 variant has also been detected in several states and exhibits characteristics that worry scientists about its potential impact on vaccine effectiveness.
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