New Mu COVID variant that can 'evade vaccine immunity' found in 49 US states

The new Mu “variant of concern”  B.1.621 of the novel coronavirus lineage has spread to at least 49 states in the US barring Nebraska, the only state where cases of the Mu have not been traced yet, according to the open-source COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology and genomic data from Su, Wu, and Andersen labs at Scripps Research. As per the CViSB Team that has been tracking the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 (hCoV-19) variants with lineage and mutation reports, the new Mu variant was first identified in Colombia in January 2021 but has now spread to 41 countries, including the United States.

Mu variant cases are more prevalent in Hawaii and Alaska. At least one case of the deadly Mu, which as per the WHO has the potential of evading vaccines, has been detected in the District of Columbia, and every state in the US. The US state of California now records the highest number of Mu variant samples with over 384 confirmed cases. This caseload has emerged out of just 0.2 percent of the total samples sequenced overall. The US Department of Public Health, meanwhile, updated 167 Mu variant cases from Los Angeles County which were sequenced between 19 June and 21 August.

The majority of cases of Mu variant have been identified by health officials in the month of July. Mu, as per the genomic data from Scripps, has spread widely in the US. There are currently two Pango lineages currently associated with the Mu variant, B.1.621 of which 869 cases have been registered already, while 8 persons have been infected with B.1.621.1.

"The identification of variants like Mu, and the spreading of variants across the globe, highlights the need for L.A. County residents to continue to take measures to protect themselves and others," Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of LA County Public Health said in a statement.

"This is what makes getting vaccinated and layering protections so important. These are actions that break the chain of transmission and limits COVID-19 proliferation that allows for the virus to mutate into something that could be more dangerous.”

Global cumulative presence less than 0.5% 

Worldwide, the cumulative presence of the Mu variant of the coronavirus is less than 0.5 percent, while in Columbia the highly transmissible variant’s presence has reached 40 percent. Health officials believe that the newly emerging variant Mu is even more contagious than the delta variant and can resist immune defenses of the COVID-19 vaccines. “The identification of variants like mu, and the spread of variants around the world, highlights the need for LA County residents to continue to take steps to protect themselves and others,” Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of LA County Public Health, said in a statement.

“This is what makes vaccination and layered protections so important. These are actions that break the chain of transmission and limit the spread of COVID-19 which allows the virus to mutate into something that could be more dangerous,” she added. The World Health Organization named the mu variant a variant of interest on 30 August. US top infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters that the health officials have been monitoring the mu variant “closely,” adding “we’re still paying attention to variations at all times.”