Careful surveillance and study of Sars-cov-2 variants will help determine the public health threats they pose and the mitigation efforts they require.

  • SARS-CoV-2 has already mutated since it was first identified and will continue to do so.
    Robust global genomic sequencing is the best tool for tracking existing variants and detecting new ones.
  • This information enables public health officials, governments, and communities to take action that can save lives. The more high-quality data that is available, the more effective the response.
  • Even as new variants emerge, vaccines, masking, and social distancing remain critical to ending the Covid-19 pandemic.
  • Every week, it seems, coverage of existing and emerging variants multiplies, with each headline scarier than the last. Terms like “Superstrains,” “Double Mutants,” “Delta Plus” and “Covid on Steroids” are attention-grabbing but do little to convey what countries and communities should expect–or do–in terms of these variant viruses. This document is designed as a guide to what matters, what to watch for, and why.

Bottom line: Effective surveillance that detects emerging variants is critical to the Covid-19 response. It’s not yet universal, even in countries like the U.S. where there is widespread vaccine access. It will be crucial to scale surveillance along with vaccine access worldwide, since careful study of their characteristics can determine which variants need to be more closely monitored as possible public health threats.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is monitoring more than 50 different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Most are unlikely to be problematic, but a handful can be classified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and WHO into four categories, based on genetic or epidemiological evidence.

Read the full article about COVID variants by Jacqueline Houtman at The Rockefeller Foundation.