COVID US-Japan COVID R.1 Variant: What To Know

[Tom.G]

Lots of detail but no links to supporting docs, way above my paygrade!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/willia...new-usjapan-variant-to-watch/?sh=722a90aa3509

 

[Ygggdrasil]

See discussion and links to studies here: https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/sars-cov-2-mutations.998345/post-6543587

 

[jim mcnamara]

Forbes BTW seems to actively support COVID vaccine use and efficacy. Your article tries to explain the important spike amino acid changes in the spike protein since December 2019. Mutations if you like, and the degree to which they get past vaccinations.

The whole idea is that someday one of the beasties will truly evade the current vaccine team: J&J, Sputnik V, Pfizer, Moderna, etc. COVID diversity is increasing:

This tangled mess shows what is meant by diversity - the family tree. It takes special software to make sense of the data behind the graphic. Nextstrain has links to some of that.

https://nextstrain.org/ncov/open/globalR.1 from the CDC:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7017e2.htm

The MMRW article is primarily about a new variant R.1 in the context of vaccination efficacy for new COVID viruses.

R.1 not classified as a VOC - variant of concern. Why? The highest level of occurrence is really low, compared to alpha or delta. Vaccines meant for other COVID flavors worked well against R.1

Given the fact that it emerged at about the time the delta variant became a dominant VOC, R.1 - so far - has not taken off in any of the susceptible populations.