https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/19/health/beta-variant-covid-19.

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The Beta Variant: What Scientists Know

The variant can dodge some of the immune system’s defenses, but is still vulnerable to vaccines.

By Emily Anthes

July 19, 2021

England lifted nearly all of its pandemic restrictions on Monday, which some Britons have hailed as “freedom
day.” The British government, however, made a notable exception: People traveling to England from France
must continue to quarantine upon their arrival, even if they are fully vaccinated.

The rule, announced on Friday, was spurred by concerns about the presence of the Beta variant of the
coronavirus in France and is intended as a precautionary measure, officials said.

“While vaccines are helping us turn the tables against this virus, we need to continue to proceed cautiously,” Dr.
Jenny Harries, the chief executive of the U.K. Health Security Agency, said in a statement on Friday. “That
means maintaining our defenses against new variants and protecting our hard-won progress through the
exceptional vaccination rollout.”

Here are answers to some common questions about the Beta variant.

What is the Beta variant?

The Beta variant, formerly known as B.1.351, was first detected in South Africa last year. It contains several
mutations, in a protein called spike, that help the virus bind more tightly to human cells.

It also contains the E484K mutation, sometimes known as the “Eek” mutation, which appears to help the virus
partially evade antibodies. This mutation has emerged independently in multiple variants, including Gamma,
which surfaced in Brazil, and in some samples of Alpha, which was first identified in Britain.

The World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have both designated Beta
as a “variant of concern.”

Why are people worried about it?

 Signs encouraged vaccinations outside the Pfizer South Africa headquarters in
Johannesburg in March. João Silva/The New York Times

Scientists and health officials became concerned about Beta because it spread quickly through South Africa and
research indicated that some vaccines were less powerful against it.

In February, for instance, South Africa stopped using the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine after clinical trials
suggested that the vaccine did not provide good protection against mild or moderate illness caused by Beta.
(Subsequent research has suggested that several authorized vaccines do provide strong protection against
severe disease caused by the variant, however.) Britain has relied heavily on the AstraZeneca vaccine, which
may explain its caution around Beta.

Some monoclonal antibody treatments are also less effective against the variant, although there are other
authorized antibody treatments that appear to work well against it.

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Beta's ability to bind tightly to human cells may also make it more transmissible; the C.D.C. notes that it appears
to be roughly 50 percent more infectious than the original strain of the virus. It does not appear to be as
contagious as Delta, however.

Where is it common?
Beta has now been reported in 123 countries, but it remains far less prevalent than Delta.

Initially, Beta spread widely through South Africa, where it once made up more than 95 percent of virus samples
sequenced in the country.

It is no longer so dominant. In the last four weeks, Beta has accounted for just 5.6 percent of virus samples
sequenced in South Africa, according to GISAID, a repository of viral genomes. (This decline is most likely
because of the arrival of the highly contagious Delta variant, which now accounts for 77.6 percent of sequences.)
Over the last four weeks, the variant has also represented 3.7 percent of virus samples sequenced in France,
according to GISAID. It is especially common on Réunion, a French island in the Indian Ocean where Beta
accounts for 31.2 percent of sequences.

Beta is not common in the United States, where it represents just 0.1 percent of infections, according to C.D.C.
estimates. It has been detected in Britain, but accounts for a negligible share of infections there.

A Covid-19 patient in the I.C.U. of the Centre Cardiologique du Nord private hospital in
Saint-Denis, near Paris, this year. Benoit Tessier/Reuters

Do the vaccines work against Beta?

The vaccines seem to be less powerful against Beta than against other versions of the virus. But studies suggest
that two doses of several widely used vaccines should still offer strong protection.

Studies in Qatar, where the Beta variant once accounted for half of all infections, have found that two doses of the
Pfizer vaccine are 72 to 75 percent effective at preventing infection with Beta, a lower degree of protection than
the shots provide against other variants. But both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines provided strong protection
against the worst outcomes; a full course of either vaccine was more than 95 percent effective at preventing
severe disease and death.

“Although Pfizer effectiveness was only 75 percent against Beta, and thus breakthrough infections with Beta are
not uncommon, these breakthrough infections are mild, and it is very rare for someone fully vaccinated to
require serious hospitalization or to die after a Beta breakthrough infection,” Laith Abu-Raddad, an infectious
disease epidemiologist at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar who led both studies, said in an email.

In an additional bit of good news, he added, there is also “no sign” that the protection these vaccines provide
against Beta has waned in the first several months after the shots.

In a clinical trial in South Africa, conducted when Beta was dominant, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had an
efficacy rate of 64 percent overall, but 82 percent efficacy at preventing severe disease.