Rassegna Stampa

Ramped-up sequencing efforts are helping to identify mutations that might boost transmission or help a virus evade immune responses.

For the scientists who have spent the past year poring over hundreds of thousands of coronavirus genomes, the United States has been an enigma. Despite having world-leading genome sequencing infrastructure and experiencing more COVID infections than any other country, the United States has until recently lagged far behind in sequencing coronavirus genomes and spotting worrisome variants.

But in recent weeks, US researchers have identified a host of new variants, including in California, New York State, Louisiana and elsewhere. And they are continuing to ramp up SARS-CoV-2 sequencing efforts.

That has brought another challenge: making sense of the variants that are discovered. They carry potentially worrying mutations and might be becoming more common, but a dearth of data on how the variants are spreading means the threat they pose is unclear.