"IHU" coronavirus variant "on our radar" but not a threat, World Health Organization says

Paris — New coronavirus variants are detected every week. Most of them pop up and then quickly disappear, others persist quietly but never become widespread, and just a few rise to the ranks of "Variants of Concern," as designated by the World Health Organization.

So, it's unusual that a variant tentatively identified in France more than a month ago, which failed to spread beyond a small initial cluster of cases, should be seizing so many headlines this week.

Perhaps it's because the researchers who looked into it decided last week to dub it "IHU" after the university hospital where it was identified, the IHU Méditerranée Infection, in Marseille, southeast France, which is led by the controversial scientist Dr. Didier Raoult, who made hydroxychloroquine a household name.