Current Events > As of 9/6, the Delta variant is still crowding out the Mu and Lambda variants

(+) Yeah! (+)

North America:
https://nextstrain.org/ncov/gisaid/north-america?d=frequencies&p=full

In North America between 8/29 and 9/6:

• Delta variant remained at about 95%
• Mu variant remained steady at around 1%.
• Gamma variant went from 2% to 1%
• Lambda variant went from 1% to <1% of total infections.
• Alpha variant is still <1%

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Is alpha variant the original strand that was discovered or is it the first actual variant?

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Don't worry, they will merge like voltron.
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Relient_K posted...

Is alpha variant the original strand that was discovered or is it the first actual variant?

Alpha variant is the one formerly known as the "UK variant". The original Wuhan strain, as well as the variant that emerged quite early with the D614G mutation (but not any other particularly noteworthy ones), didn't get Greek letter names.

There's millions of variants out there in general, but only a very small number that are actually noteworthy - most of which these days end up getting Greek letter names, although they can be a bit slow about it (Mu had been being discussed for a while as "the Colombian variant" before they finally named it, and they haven't given C.1.2 a Greek letter name yet - but I'm going to bet they will).

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Trumble posted...

Alpha variant is the one formerly known as the "UK variant". The original Wuhan strain, as well as the variant that emerged quite early with the D614G mutation (but not any other particularly noteworthy ones), didn't get Greek letter names.

There's millions of variants out there in general, but only a very small number that are actually noteworthy - most of which these days end up getting Greek letter names, although they can be a bit slow about it (Mu had been being discussed for a while as "the Colombian variant" before they finally named it, and they haven't given C.1.2 a Greek letter name yet - but I'm going to bet they will).

Yeah, from what I heard at a recent company meeting, they've identified over 2000 variants.

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shockthemonkey posted...

Mu and Lambda are the ones that have more potential for vaccine resistance, right?

That's what I've read about them

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CableZL posted...

Yeah, from what I heard at a recent company meeting, they've identified over 2000 variants.

I'm not entirely sure what exactly is the threshold to define it as "a variant", but in general - a small degree of mutation occurs almost every time it transmits; in places with relatively few cases, they can use the genetic sequence to determine who infected who / etc in cases where it isn't clear from exposure events alone. (As one example - although we don't have a clue how, in New Zealand we do know that our current outbreak stemmed from a traveller from Australia on 7th August - and were able to determine based on that that the potential exposure sites from earlier than that date were no longer of concern.)

You could think of it as being like a text-based game of Telephone, with a really really long message. Making a typo generally isn't going to change the meaning, or cause any difficulty understanding the message. Though you could still see, as more typos get introduced along the way, where someone might've been in the chain based on what typos they do or don't have. And it's possible, that very occasionally, a typo that actually does change the meaning sneaks in. The genetic equivalent being, a mutation that actually offers a benefit to the virus (such as being more transmissible, or less affected by immunity). Although a significant number of mutations happen, and a decent number stick around, only a very small amount actually mean much.

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Notti posted...

Don't worry, they will merge like voltron.

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Trumble posted...

I'm not entirely sure what exactly is the threshold to define it as "a variant", but in general - a small degree of mutation occurs almost every time it transmits; in places with relatively few cases, they can use the genetic sequence to determine who infected who / etc in cases where it isn't clear from exposure events alone. (As one example - although we don't have a clue how, in New Zealand we do know that our current outbreak stemmed from a traveller from Australia on 7th August - and were able to determine based on that that the potential exposure sites from earlier than that date were no longer of concern.)

You could think of it as being like a text-based game of Telephone, with a really really long message. Making a typo generally isn't going to change the meaning, or cause any difficulty understanding the message. Though you could still see, as more typos get introduced along the way, where someone might've been in the chain based on what typos they do or don't have. And it's possible, that very occasionally, a typo that actually does change the meaning sneaks in. The genetic equivalent being, a mutation that actually offers a benefit to the virus (such as being more transmissible, or less affected by immunity). Although a significant number of mutations happen, and a decent number stick around, only a very small amount actually mean much.

Yeah, I'm sure there have been many more variants given all of the spread we've had globally. Somewhere north of 2000 have been identified as of a meeting we had last month

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