Variant in N.Y. is cause of concern

NEW YORK — Another mutated version of the coronavirus has popped up in New York City, and experts reacted to the the news with a mixture of caution and concern.

The new variant first appeared in the New York area in late November, and has since cropped up in neighboring states, according to researchers at the California Institute of Technology, one of two teams to share their work this week.

But how problematic the variant may be isn’t known yet. Viruses are constantly mutating — or making typos in their genetic code — as they spread and make copies of themselves.

“Most are not of particular concern,” said Francois Balloux, director of the University College London’s Genetics Institute.

However, he added, “Noticing them early, flagging them, raising concern is useful.”

That’s because some genetic tweaks can be worrisome, especially if they help the virus spread more easily, make it more deadly or curb the effectiveness of vaccines. Worrisome variants discovered in Britain, South Africa and Brazil have mutations on the spiky protein the virus uses to attach to and infect cells.

New York City health officials and Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday sought to tamp down worries about the new variant, emphasizing that the new research is preliminary and little is known about the variant.

Two research groups — at Caltech and Columbia University in New York — released papers this week describing their findings about the new variant. Neither paper has been published or reviewed by other scientists.

The Caltech researchers found that the new variant showed up in about a quarter of the 1,200 virus sequences they looked at this month. The variant has also shown up in New Jersey and Connecticut and has made “isolated appearances across the country,” said CalTech’s Anthony West, a coauthor of the paper.

On Thursday, Columbia University researchers released their research that scrutinized about 1,100 virus samples from patients treated at the university’s medical center, dating back to November. During the second week of February, the new variant was identified in 12 percent of the samples, they reported. They also found patients infected with the mutated virus were more likely to be older and have been hospitalized.

Both groups noted that the new variant has a mutation that could potentially weaken the effectiveness of vaccines.

“There is clearly something to keep an eye on,” Balloux said.

A variant that has been spreading in California is also getting attention. It’s been found in 40 percent to 50 percent of samples examined by the Los Angeles Count Department of Public Health, according to Director Barbara Ferrer. But there isn’t enough rigorous research to determine what, if any, effect its mutations might have.