Could a new variant succeed Omicron? A new one would have been, in any case, identified in France by the IHU of Marseille.
It is on its Twitter account that the IHU of Marseille that the B.1.640.2 variant was mentioned. On December 9, 2021, researchers at the institute identified this variant which would carry 46 mutations and 37 deletions, including 23 in the spike protein, while the Omicron variant, for its part, contains around fifty mutations, including 32 on the spike protein.
It has been identified in twelve sick people in Forcalquier in the Alpes de Haute-Provence, France. It is, in fact, a sublineage of the B.1.640 variant which had been detected for the first time in the Republic of Congo in September 2021. Prof. Colson of the IUH confided to France 3 Mediterranean that one of the patients in Forcalquier had stayed in Cameroon. A pre-study was published by the researchers of the IHU of Marseille. However, it has not yet been validated by their colleagues. Some even take care not to alarm people about this discovery. Virologist Tom Peacock, for example, recalls on his Twitter account that the variant B.1.640.2 predates Omicron and is currently much less common.
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Should we really be worried about this new variant?
For the moment, it is therefore impossible to consider this new variant as dangerous. As of November 22, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) has classified the B.1.640 variant as VUM, i.e. “variants under monitoring”, that is “variant under surveillance” in French. “Reinforced epidemiological monitoring and in vitro studies are underway at Public Health France and at the CNR to assess the characteristics of this variant and its impact on public health”, wrote French Public Health in December 2021, before adding that “The current data are preliminary and relate to a small number of cases and it is therefore advisable to remain cautious about the interpretations.”