Buffalo, NY (WBEN) - The fear of COVID variants becoming problematic remains a concerns of public health specialists, however evidence locally continues to point to the vaccines being effective in controlling the virus mutations thus far.
Erie County has now seen every variant of the COVID19 and the vaccines have been successful in battling the virus, raising the question of whether 'variant' is a fear-triggering word.
"Over 90% of cases sequenced in April in Western New York were variants of concern," says Dr. Jennifer Vertees of UB. Variants of concern are those mutations of the virus that are more easily transmitted, which cause more severe disease, and which are less able to be neutralized by antibody treatments.
"The great news is that all of the vaccines available in the U.S. – the Pfizer vaccine, the Moderna vaccine and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — they all protect against all of the variants of concern," said Surtees. "So the best way to protect yourself, your loved ones and your community is to get vaccinated. If you are not vaccinated, you are at significantly higher risk and should wear a mask and avoid traveling to places with high rates of disease.
"We want this information to get out to the public because even though case numbers are down, especially with the 'un-masking' that is now allowed, it becomes really critical for people to be aware of what's out there and to further encourage vaccination," she added.
The B.1.1.7 variant of concern, originally identified in the United Kingdom, is now dominant in Erie County, accounting for roughly half the cases in April. "About half of them were B.1.1.7, originally referred to as the UK variant, which is more transmissible, can make antibody treatments less effective and can make you sicker than the original virus," she said.
The other variants of concern detected here are B.1.351 (South Africa), B.1.427 (California) and P.1 (Brazil).
Dr. John Sellick of Kaleida Health says the good news with the vaccines is "these have been shown to be very effective, especially with the British variant, New York City and southern California, and the other variants as well."
Is the term variant one that's triggering fear and should go away? Sellick says no. "Actually, it's a good word," explains Sellick. "We always use terms like mutations and strains, so a mutation is something that has changed from its prior form. Many of these mutations do nothing. What we're doing with the term variant is leveraging this by saying we know these mutations are happening and these particular viruses are varied from what we thought were the original but not to the point where we have a whole new strain."
Sellick says he doesn't know what might develop in the future. "There might be another variant that comes out as being more efficient at getting spread and might displace the B.1117," says Sellick.
Vertees says the way she thinks about variants is there's a change in the genome of the COVID virus. "There have been lots and lots of changes in the course of the past year, but most of them don't affect the variants of the virus. The variants of concern are distinct in that they are changes in the genome of the virus that lead to increased transmissibilty and more severe disease in some cases, so as a term I think it's important," says Vertees. But she also says it's important to recognize every change leads to a change in disease.
