Far from over, the Covid-19 pandemic is evolving and taking new forms. The appearance of two new variants, Epsilon and Lambda, detected respectively in California (United States) and Peru, now worries the authorities, reports in particular Midi-Free.
These two variants have been classified as “to watch” by the World Health Organization (WHO). They are therefore, at this stage, considered to be less dangerous than the other four “worrying” variants, like the now famous Delta variant. The latter “represents more than 40% of contaminations” in France, said Gabriel Attal on Wednesday, which greatly worries the health authorities.
More vaccine resistant variants?
The Lambda variant could prove to be more contagious than the Alpha variants (first identified in the UK) or Gamma (detected in Brazil) because of a “rather unusual set of mutations”, as one expert explained. british to Sky News. It could also reveal vaccine resistance superior to other coronavirus mutations. In total, around fifteen cases have been identified in France at present.
The Epsilon variant, detected since March 2020 in California, has so far not worried the authorities. It is now more resistant to antibodies produced by the human body after double injection of a messenger RNA vaccine (Pfizer or Moderna), according to a
recent study American. If this conclusion is confirmed, a third dose of vaccine may be necessary. A dozen cases have reportedly been spotted in France for the moment.