Talk:Variants of SARS-CoV-2

	Variants of SARS-CoV-2 was a Natural sciences good articles nominee, but did not meet the good article criteria at the time. There may be suggestions below for improving the article. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.
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Section sizes Section size for Variants of SARS-CoV-2 (69 sections) Section name Byte count Prose size (words) Header Total Header Total (Top) 2,967 2,967 116 116 Overview 7,130 7,130 298 298 Definitions 6,217 6,217 434 434 Notability criteria 3,215 3,215 167 167 Nomenclature 11,214 16,909 219 341 Lineages and clades 5,695 5,695 122 122 Reference sequence 5,327 5,327 65 65 Overview of historical variants of concern or under monitoring 20,745 20,745 75 75 Previously circulating and formerly monitored variants (WHO) 474 70,467 60 2,431 Previously circulating variants of concern (VOC) 299 47,489 30 1,428 Alpha (lineage B.1.1.7) 10,907 14,247 174 271 B.1.1.7 with E484K 3,340 3,340 97 97 Beta (lineage B.1.351) 6,343 6,343 193 193 Gamma (lineage P.1) 14,164 14,164 534 534 Delta (lineage B.1.617.2) 12,436 12,436 400 400 Previously circulating variants of interest (VOI) 1,055 20,874 0 900 Epsilon (lineages B.1.429, B.1.427, CAL.20C) 10,334 10,334 436 436 Zeta (lineage P.2) 113 113 0 0 Eta (lineage B.1.525) 4,359 4,359 295 295 Theta (lineage P.3) 4,582 4,582 169 169 Iota (lineage B.1.526) 175 175 0 0 Kappa (lineage B.1.617.1) 89 89 0 0 Lambda (lineage C.37) 86 86 0 0 Mu (lineage B.1.621) 81 81 0 0 Formerly monitored variants (WHO) 1,630 1,630 43 43 Omicron 117 19,976 0 1,070 Lineage B.1.1.529 4,117 4,117 158 158 BA. sublineages 2,016 2,016 106 106 XBB sublineages 3,592 3,592 218 218 Lineage BA.2.86 4,185 4,185 219 219 Sublineages by year 137 5,949 0 369 2024 2,852 2,852 175 175 2025 2,960 2,960 194 194 Omicron variants under monitoring (WHO, 2022/2023) 2,295 2,295 73 73 Other notable variants 16,097 16,097 545 545 Recombinant variants 1,524 1,524 50 50 Incubation theory for multiple mutated variants 2,047 2,047 48 48 Notable missense mutations 109 38,558 11 1,882 del 69-70 708 708 52 52 RSYLTPGD246-253N 2,419 2,419 87 87 N440K 1,929 1,929 98 98 G446V 1,168 1,168 78 78 L452R 780 780 109 109 Y453F 765 765 41 41 S477G/N 2,478 2,478 133 133 E484Q 1,278 1,278 63 63 E484K 5,806 5,806 158 158 F490S 1,443 1,443 56 56 N501Y 2,639 2,639 126 126 N501S 1,687 1,687 72 72 D614G 5,846 5,846 215 215 Q677P/H 2,209 2,209 153 153 P681H 2,062 2,062 97 97 P681R 505 505 71 71 A701V 4,727 4,727 262 262 Data and methods 2,319 8,969 93 199 New variant detection and assessment 3,969 3,969 76 76 Testing 2,681 2,681 30 30 Cross-species transmission 2,099 6,398 58 254 Cluster 5 4,299 4,299 196 196 Vaccines 253 3,001 31 127 Differential vaccine effectiveness 2,568 2,748 96 96 Immune evasion by variants 92 92 0 0 Vaccine adjustments 88 88 0 0 See also 394 394 0 0 Notes 517 517 0 0 References 4,181 4,181 0 0 Further reading 1,026 1,026 0 0 External links 440 440 0 0 Total 238,400 238,400 8,175 8,175

Refactoring notes

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A rather messy situation, given that these articles are not mainly edited by Wikipedia power-users. I've done a lot of refactoring on these articles, so here are my notes. In short, with the help of {{excerpt}}:

• Where a variant is notable enough to have a substantial Wikipedia article, it will not be transcluded.
• Where a variant is not notable enough to have a Wikipedia article substantially different from the section in Variants of SARS-CoV-2, it will be transcluded.
• Every variant will link to Variants of SARS-CoV-2 via {{main}}.
• No new articles on specific SARS-CoV-2 variants will be made, given the lack of notability, unless someone wants to create SARS-CoV-2 variants by year to condense all the inevitable new variants that will arise, which, as of 10 September 2024^[update], is currently in Variants of SARS-CoV-2#Sublineages by year.

This just leaves Omicron, which is rather unusual in that it is still, as of 10 September 2024^[update], the current "Variant of Concern". Since most people seem to be focusing on updating Variants of SARS-CoV-2 with new VOIs or VUMs, rather than SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, I've decided to transclude Variants of SARS-CoV-2's content into SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.

Then there's the section on vaccines. Currently, SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant has more info on vaccines, so it has been transcluded to Variants of SARS-CoV-2. However, COVID-19 vaccine should be where that info goes. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be well updated, and has had sections transcluded from SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, which appears to be better updated with vaccine info.

So that's the situation right now. I don't know if the casual editors realize how much of this is a mess, but I hope this can serve as a guide as to where you need to edit:

• Probably variants of SARS-CoV-2#Sublineages by year for 2025 and beyond, or COVID-19 vaccine, which needs a lot of work.⸺(Random)staplers 21:22, 10 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Randomstaplers: The quality of these pages dropped considerably due to COVID-19 dropping out of the media spotlight - which itself is mainly thanks to vaccines - and you seem to have been the first person to make a serious effort in finding a minimally disruptive and reasonable way to relate the pages and sections to one another with minimal redundancy. Just from a very rapid browse, it looks like within this structure, things are at least clear enough to allow updates without redundancy. If someone wants to propose an alternative structure, then let them make that proposal. Boud (talk) 14:41, 30 September 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Nucleocapsid mutations, spike protein mutations

Wikipedia articles now talk only about mutation of spike protein.

What about major mutations in nucleocapsid? If sars2 spike mutations have now reached evoluationary dead end, it doesn't mean nucleocapsid mutations have.

Brief history of spike protein mutations, correct me if I'm wrong:

2021. Omicron has >50 mutations compared to Wuhan-2019 variant. Early subvariants BA.1 . . . BA.5.

2023. JN.1 has >30 mutations compared to first omicron cases.

2024. KP.3 is a subvariant of KP.2. KP.2 is a subvariant of JN.1

So only 2 major changes in spike protein, in 2021 and in 2023.

91.159.190.165 (talk) 15:03, 26 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

thank you for posting--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 23:43, 26 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"Cerberus (virus)" listed at Redirects for discussion

The redirect Cerberus (virus) has been listed at redirects for discussion to determine whether its use and function meets the redirect guidelines. Readers of this page are welcome to comment on this redirect at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2025 January 11 § Cerberus (virus) until a consensus is reached. Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 11:36, 11 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

NB.1.8.1

My source is this article. I don't know where the information belongs in the article, but this seems significant.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 16:05, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Vchimpanzee Hi, the recommended source for this is https://www.who.int/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants/ and https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/documents/epp/tracking-sars-cov-2/23052025_nb.1.8.1_ire.pdf?sfvrsn=7b14df58_4

But there are already some of these variants missing from the article. At some point this should be cleaned up, but I don't think it is urgent. Ndevln (talk) 17:33, 31 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]