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Update (May 11): CNBC reports that the World Health Organization now considers B.1.617 a variant of concern, following an analysis by one of its working groups that indicated the variant is more transmissible than the original one.
With India in the grip of a devastating second wave of COVID-19—the country recorded more than 368,000 new cases and 3,417 deaths from the disease yesterday—some have suggested that a variant first detected there in October could share some of the blame. The B.1.617 version of the coronavirus carries the ominous nickname “double mutant,” but it has more than two sequence changes from older SARS-CoV-2 variants, and little is known so far about the effects of these alterations, if any, on disease severity or the virus’s ability to evade immunity gained through infection or vaccines.
One preliminary bit of insight emerged on April 23, when researchers reported in a ...
