While the world’s newest coronavirus variant of concern, named omicron, hasn’t yet been detected in Washington state or the United States, a UW scientist said Friday that its high number of mutations is particularly concerning.
The new variant — which was first identified in South Africa and has now been seen in travelers to Belgium, Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel — has about 50 mutations, about 30 of which are located in the spike protein, a primary protein the virus uses to enter our cells, said Dr. Deborah Fuller, a microbiologist at UW Medicine.
“The concern regarding the number of mutations in that region is that there’s a potential that those mutations could make our vaccines less effective because the antibody response induced against the spike protein might be less effective against those mutants,” she said. Continue reading…