John Glenn Morris of UF found that the COVID-19 gamma variant spread rapidly in Haiti during the summer of 2021, despite a high level of immunity within the population. The variant spread exponentially and rapidly replaced other lineages of the virus that were circulating in the population.

“There has been the belief that prior exposure to early lineages of SARS-CoV-2 would protect a population from such introductions. However, as seen with the gamma variant, these variants have the ability to rapidly spread in a region where there have been numerous prior COVID cases,” said Morris.

• John Morris