Epsilon the new variant that comes after the Delta

The biochemist Matthieu McCallum, at the University of Washington in Seattle, studied mutations and published research in the Scientific journal to alert the world.

Identified for the first time in California, the Epsilon variant is still not very widespread in Europe, with only two cases recorded in Italy, according to the international bank Gisaid, which collects the genetic sequences of the virus.

The analysis coordinated by McCallum was based on the analysis of 57 samples, in which he was able to observe three antibody-resistant mutations found in the Spike protein, the medium that the virus uses to enter cells.

The data indicate that with its three mutations, the variant Epsilon is resistant to both antibodies generated by messenger RNA vaccines and those generated by the SarsCoV2 virus.

The published observations are based on the analysis of plasma collected from 15 people vaccinated with two doses of Moderna, 33 vaccinated with two doses of Pfizer-BioNtech and 9 who had been infected with SarsCoV2.

Found in early 2021 in California, Epsilon had already spread to 34 other countries by May and according to the Gisaid database for four weeks it has already been present in 44 countries, including the United States, South Korea, India. and Japan.

In Europe, cases have been found in Denmark (37 cases), Germany (10), Ireland and France (7), the Netherlands and Spain (5), Switzerland (4), Norway ( 3), Sweden, Finland and Italy (2), Belgium (1).