Pathology Professor Dave O’Connor and colleagues at the AIDS Vaccine Research Laboratory are keeping watch for the arrival of virus variants which may be more adept at infecting people or possibly making vaccines and common treatments less effective. They have sequenced virus from more than 3,200 infections and have posted their surveillance results on line as soon as the sequences are complete. Dr. O’Connor was one of several scientists consulted by Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin prior to her introduction of a bill to fund an expansion of virus genome sequencing in the US.
Read more: https://news.wisc.edu/viral-sequencing-catches-mutations-guides-effective-public-health-response/
Watch Shelby O’Connor’s interview with NBC in Milwaukee, discussing the detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants in Wisconsin:
https://www.tmj4.com/news/coronavirus/uw-madison-lab-sequencing-covid-19-variants-found-in-wisconsin