September 9, 2021 – The World Health Organization recently classified the Mu variant as a “variant of interest”, and will continue to monitor as cases emerge across the world. According to a report by The Washington Post, it is “the fifth variant of interest currently being monitored by the WHO.”
Mu was first detected in Colombia in January 2021 and has since been identified in over 39 countries, including the United States, South Korea, Japan, Ecuador, Canada, and Europe. There have been 2,000 mu cases identified in the United States so far, mostly in California, Florida, Texas, and New York.
Variant of interest
Even though the WHO classified mu as a variant of interest, it is not an “immediate threat right now in the United States,” according to top infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci. While the government is keeping a close eye on the mu variant, it’s “not at all close to being dominant” like the Delta variant.
Fauci explained further in his press briefing, saying, “We take it very seriously, but remember, even when you have variants that do diminish somewhat the efficacy of a vaccine, the vaccines are still quite effective against variants of that type. Bottom line, we’re paying attention to it. We take everything like that seriously, but we don’t consider it an immediate threat now.”
Efficacy of vaccines
It’s currently unclear how much protection the vaccines offer against the mu variant. The WHO released a statement saying “The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape. But this needs to be confirmed by other studies.”
Kit Longley, a spokesperson for Pfizer, told The Washington Post that Pfizer was studying the Mu variant and “expected to share date soon with a peer-reviewed journal.”
Longley said, “To date, we are encouraged by both the real-world data and laboratory studies of the vaccine and see no evidence that the virus or circulating variants of concern regularly escape protection.”