This is one of the first questions we ask ourselves, once infected. “I have the Covid, but is it a variant? Soon you won't be able to find out. The decision has just been made: from May 31, the rules change and the entry will indeed be removed from the detail of the results. “We're not going to write it anymore. In reality, it is no longer of interest, "sweeps François Blanchecotte, president of the National Union of Biologists. Indeed, today, more than 85% of people infected in France have the British variant. As for the minority contaminated by the South African or the Brazilian, the analyzes do not always make it possible to differentiate them.
But we should not be mistaken, vigilance does not relax. On the contrary. Rather than trying to qualify the variants, biologists will focus on finding mutations. Three of them will be tracked: "484 K", "484 Q", "L452 R". They are found in the English mutant, South African, Brazilian, Indian, Californian and Nigerian. A code corresponding to these genetic alterations will be entered on the screening sheet. “So much the better! Finding out which variant was more frightening than anything else, ”agrees infectious disease specialist Benjamin Davido. Still, medical analysis laboratories, as well as manufacturers producing reagents, will have to adapt quickly. And "it is not won", according to François Blanchecotte.
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The authorities are focusing on these mutations because they are suspected of making the virus more contagious, more resistant to vaccination or to our natural defenses. In short, they are the crux of the problem. “Seeing a mutation spreading in the population could warn us of the arrival of a fourth wave,” explains François Blanchecotte. "It's a change in philosophy in the way variants are traced," explains the virologist and member of the scientific council Bruno Lina, specifying that the Flash studies, carried out in his lab to measure their presence, will intensify, becoming weekly. The ultimate fear of scientists? That several genetic modifications of the virus do not spread at the same time.