COVID-19’s New Variant Is Not More Dangerous Than Omicron
The Claim
The new COVID-19 variant is even more dangerous than Omicron.
News posted on
Emerging story
Twitter and Facebook accounts have recently shared a claim that the new COVID-19 variant discovered in France under the name IHU is even more dangerous than Omicron.
Description: The screenshots capture the purported claim shared on Twitter and a news website.
Misbar’s Analysis
Misbar’s team investigated the circulated claim and found that it was misleading. The new COVID-19 variant, IHU, which goes by B.1.640.2, is part of the B.1.640 variant series. The variant is designated by the World Health Organization as part of the “variants under monitoring” (VUMs), while Omicron is designated as a “variant of concern” (VOC).
The new variant, according to WHO’s incident manager Mr. Abdi Mahmoud, “had been on the agency’s radar since November.” However, “it did not appear to have spread widely over the past two months,” added Mr. Mahmoud. By contrast, the Omicron variant had “spread quickly and emerged in at least 128 countries” since it was first detected.
The New York Times also reported that “several independent researchers say there is little reason to be concerned about the I.H.U. variant.” In a research paper “that was published on a preprint server in late December, but that has not been peer-reviewed, the researchers also wrote that “[i]t is too early to speculate on virological, epidemiological or clinical features of this I.H.U. variant based on these 12 cases.”
Translated by Ahmed N. A. Almassri
