--- title: WHO Official Downplays Threat of New COVID IHU Variant description: The World Health Organization said the IHU coronavirus variant hasn’t become much of a threat since it was first identified in November. canonical: https://time.com/6133106/ihu-new-covid-variant/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-01-05T02:03:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T10:41:33.408Z article:section: Health og:title: WHO Official Downplays Threat of New COVID IHU Variant og:description: The WHO says the IHU coronavirus variant hasn’t become much of a threat since it was first identified og:url: https://time.com/6133106/ihu-new-covid-variant/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38c0ea83eb8fa2d0/698a213b096a946bd06ac1fc/GettyImages-1230533004.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: MARSEILLE-HEALTH-VIRUS og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: WHO Official Downplays Threat of New COVID IHU Variant twitter:description: The WHO says the IHU coronavirus variant hasn’t become much of a threat since it was first identified twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38c0ea83eb8fa2d0/698a213b096a946bd06ac1fc/GettyImages-1230533004.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # WHO Official Downplays New COVID IHU Variant Found in France > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=8e459658-5c67-41c0-838b-a4f735743b5d&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Marthe Fourcade and Thomas Mulier / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Marthe Fourcade and Thomas Mulier / Bloomberg Contributor Jan 5, 2022 2:03 AM UTC  A health worker seen at the University Hospital Institute for Infectious Diseases (IHU) in Marseille, on January 11, 2021. A health worker seen at the University Hospital Institute for Infectious Diseases (IHU) in Marseille, on January 11, 2021. CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty Images by [Marthe Fourcade and Thomas Mulier / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Marthe Fourcade and Thomas Mulier / Bloomberg Contributor Jan 5, 2022 2:03 AM UTC The World Health Organization said a coronavirus variant found in France hasn’t become much of a threat since it was first identified in November. The variant “has been on our radar,” Abdi Mahamud, a WHO incident manager on Covid, said at a press briefing in Geneva on Tuesday. “That virus had a lot of chances to pick up.” The variant [was identified](https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.24.21268174v1.full-text) in 12 people in the southern Alps around the same time that omicron was discovered in South Africa last year. The latter mutation has since traveled the globe and kindled record levels of contagion, unlike the French one that researchers at the IHU Mediterranee Infection — helmed by scientist Didier Raoult — nicknamed IHU. The first patient identified with the variant was vaccinated and had just returned from Cameroon, IHU researchers wrote in a paper published on the medRxiv server in late December where they first drew attention to the atypical mutations. It’s “too early to speculate on virological, epidemiological or clinical features of this IHU variant based on these 12 cases,” they wrote in the article, which hasn’t been peer reviewed. Raoult stirred controversy in the early stages of the pandemic by recommending treatment with hydroxychloroquine. The WHO monitors multiple variants, and when it finds one may pose a significant risk, it declares it a “variant of concern.” This one is only under investigation. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6133106/ihu-new-covid-variant/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6133106/ihu-new-covid-variant/"},"headline":"WHO Official Downplays New COVID IHU Variant Found in France","datePublished":"2022-01-05T02:03:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T10:41:33.408Z","description":"The World Health Organization said the IHU coronavirus variant hasn’t become much of a threat since it was first identified in November","url":"https://time.com/6133106/ihu-new-covid-variant/","keywords":["COVID-19","wire","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38c0ea83eb8fa2d0/698a213b096a946bd06ac1fc/GettyImages-1230533004.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Marthe Fourcade and Thomas Mulier / Bloomberg"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt38c0ea83eb8fa2d0/698a213b096a946bd06ac1fc/GettyImages-1230533004.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"MARSEILLE-HEALTH-VIRUS","caption":"MARSEILLE-HEALTH-VIRUS","creditText":"CHRISTOPHE SIMON/AFP via Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6133106/ihu-new-covid-variant/","name":"WHO Official Downplays New COVID IHU Variant Found in France"}}]}] ```