No, the Breton variant of Sars-CoV 2 is not an "invention"
Audio 03:04
Lannion hospital, in western France, where a new variant of the SARS-CoV2 coronavirus has been detected.
© Damien Meyer / AFP
By: Sophie Malibeaux
8 mins
The detection of a new variant in Brittany has been the “buzz” on social networks since mid-March.
This strain poorly detected by PCR tests aroused the perplexity of Internet users when the authorities were considering new restrictive measures in Paris and the Île de France.
Some do not hesitate to dispute the reality of the “
Breton variant
”.
Chronicle produced in partnership with Thibaud Hue and Lise Lacombe from the EPJT.
Publicity
Alongside the
humorous
tweets
invoking all the clichés of Breton particularism, the announcement of the existence of a Breton variant also gave rise to comments relating to political instrumentalisation.
So much so that with the announcement by the authorities of new restrictions to curb the circulation of the virus, the Breton variant has become a "
trend
"
subject
on Twitter, with this type of publication:
"
The trick to prevent Parisians from tumbling into Britain
'
,
'
l
'
excuse for a total reconfinement
"
or
"
Macron and his gang do not know what to find to extend coronacircus up
'
in the elections of 2022
"
.
Most of these
tweets
come from accounts generally critical of barrier measures and any other pandemic control strategy, when they are not in denial of the very existence of the virus.
Among the protesters of the measures adopted, Florian Philippot, at the head of the Patriots movement, does not hesitate to relay the thesis of the invention of the variant.
March 16, 2021,
on behalf of the politician
publishes this:
'
C
'
is in France that
'
was
invented
e stealth variant undetectable PCR.
This is a technological secret that this time should Macron s
'
rush to spin the Germans.
"
A Varian
t
class
e "
to study
"
However, on March 13, 2021,
the Breton variant was indeed detected
in a hospital in Lannion, where a
cluster
of 78 people affected by Covid-19 was spotted.
By sequencing these coronavirus cases, a new variant was detected in eight patients, who have since died.
As in the case of the English, South African or Brazilian variants, the strain took the name of the place where it was first detected.
However, unlike these variants considered to be of concern, particularly for their degree of contagiousness, the analyzes provided by the Directorate General for Health indicate that there is nothing to conclude that the so-called “
Breton
”
variant is serious or more transmissible
.
Observations on the cases of Covid-19 in Lannion show that the deceased patients were quite old, with significant comorbid factors and that the tests performed on them were negative for seven of them.
Today, this variant is not of particular concern and it remains classified as “
variants under study
”.
The th
th
is unfounded manufacturer variants vaccine
Among the infox circulating on the Breton variant, viral publications make the vaccine responsible for its appearance.
This is the case of the
tweet
of a person who presents himself as a former medical director of an Anglo-Saxon laboratory, whom she however avoids naming.
According to "
Doctor Hamelin
" on Twitter, the eight patients who died of the Breton variant had received the vaccine.
Yet it is an infox, "debunked" in particular by Agence France Presse, on its
factual AFP
site
.
Verification made, only one of them had received a first dose of vaccine.
According to the Brittany Regional Health Agency, the other seven had not received any injection.
Under this
tweet
, an Internet user explains:
“It has been a while since many doctors warned about the factory of mutants following vaccination.
"
But the theory of a variant result of the vaccine, flowing from the appearance of new strains in Britain, is based on nothing.
According to Yves Buisson, professor of the Academy of Medicine, contacted by AFP, the appearance of variants is a natural process of viruses that keep mutating.
While vaccination in England started in December, the variant appeared in September and cases were detected as early as November.
In addition, the English, very efficient in terms of sequencing, detected the mutation which may have started outside their territory and earlier, without having been detected.
In total, the British health services have identified more than 4,000 forms of Sars CoV2 variants.
Mutations in the virus did not wait for the arrival of vaccines.
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