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New Covid-19 Variants

We have ALL your misinformation, plus some TRUE FACTS and SCIENCE.
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Volkonski
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New Covid-19 Variants

#1

Post by Volkonski »

Laurie Garrett

ATTN, New Yorkers: There's a new type of #SARSCoV2 in town -- a mutant that may outwit our #COVID19 #vaccines.
Here's what we know so far:
1.) A @Caltech team has been screening viral samples from USA and noted a new mutant appeared in November in NYC, dubbing it B.1.526.

2/ The @Caltech team says B.1.526 variant is spreading fast in NYC, now ='ing 27.8% of all new infections.
This virus has 2 key mutations that may make it dangerous. Both, alter the spike proteins that protrude from #SARSCoV2 & attach to human cells.

3/ One mutation in NY's B.1.526 variant form of #SARSCoV2 is E484K -- this is the mutation point that makes the so-called South African and Brazil variants capable of evading antibodies and rendering some of the #COVID19 #vaccines far less effective.

4/ The other mutation in B.1.526 variant is to a spike protein position called S477N -- and this could have profound impact on spread of #COVID19 in NYC. S477N mutations make the virus cling 10Xs more strongly to cells that line the nose and throat.

5/ The S477N mutation could mean that people's noses fill up with viruses. It's a location from which viruses spread to other people with simple, normal breathing -- unless proper masks are covering the nose. And it's a location where different components of the immune syst.

6/ ...dominate: not so much of the IgG neutralizing Abs produced w/vax. That MIGHT (caution) mean that even vaccinated people could carry and pass the new B.1.526 variant to others.
In basic terms, what does this mean for you, if you live in NYC?

A New Coronavirus Variant Is Spreading in New York, Researchers Report
The variant contains a mutation thought to help the virus dodge the immune system, scientists said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/heal ... t-nyc.html

7/ Let me illustrate the signif w/a quick anecdote. Last night I was watching a neighbor sing from his stoop. A stranger jumped in front of me, loosely masked, eclipsing my safe 6' distancing. I said "Hey - 6 feet!" She laughed, refused to budge & said, "I'm vaccinated!"

8/ Well, I said, "that's swell for you, but what about others? You could be a carrier, and spread virus to OTHERS. Don't you care?"
She waved me off and laughed at me.
So we are at a tough juncture, Ladies & Gentlemen. As more people get vax'ed, social distancing relaxes...

9/ Meanwhile, we have new B.1.526 mutant #SARSCoV2 circulating in NYC, jumping from <2% of viral samples collected in the City in November, to >27% now. And we are rolling out #COVID19 #vaccines . @NYGovCuomo is relaxing indoor dining, movies & other social distancing rules.

10/ Please be careful, whether you're vaccinated or not. Wear those masks, not only to protect yourselves, but as a civic duty to protect others. The B.1.526 variant needs more study b4 we can say exactly how dangerous it is. Be prudent: assume it's bad.

Everything We Know About the Coronavirus Variant Spreading in New York City
Two new studies suggest that the variant B.1.526 detected in New York City could dampen the effectiveness of some vaccine candidates.
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/02 ... -know.html
• • •
“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Lani
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#2

Post by Lani »

A new COVID-19 strain originating in South Africa that is both highly contagious and able to evade antibodies was detected in an Oahu resident, state health officials announced Monday.

The resident had no travel history, indicating they contracted the virus in the community. The person also likely exposed several household members who have tested positive and may have transmitted it to others at the person’s workplace.... “There are positive contacts who we assume have the same variant....”

Two more infections caused by the COVID-19 strain that originated in the U.K. were confirmed this week as well, taking the total to eight cases in the span of three weeks.

The U.K. strain is on track to become dominant in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2021/03/south ... d-on-oahu/

The variants are arriving as restrictions are loosening on all islands and tourism is picking up. :(

One person was vaccinated before he knew that his coworker had the South African virus, and he now has it as well.

Statewide, 16% received at least one vaccine dose. Lanai & Molokai (very small populations) are going to reach 100% soon. I know that Kauai was at 20% little while ago, so it must be higher now. The age requirement has dropped, and our tourism workers and DOE employees are also being vaccinated.
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#3

Post by Dave from down under »

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-17/ ... e/13238680

Coronavirus variants lurk in US amid fears 'fourth wave' will hit before nation vaccinated

Within eight hours of showing his first symptoms, JJ had died.

While JJ lived with autism and ADHD, doctors say those are not pre-existing conditions that are known to worsen COVID-19 symptoms.

They don't know why the virus killed him so quickly, but one theory they have is that he may have been infected by a new variant.

They are now conducting a thorough autopsy to try and determine whether it was a more deadly strain that took his life.
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#4

Post by Dave from down under »

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-25/ ... /100027226

India has reported a new potentially troublesome variant of the coronavirus as it struggled with the highest single-day tally of new infections and deaths this year.

Key points:
Scientists have been investigating which mutations might make the virus spread more easily or make people sicker
The genetic tweaks in the new mutation could be of concern if they are undetected by the immune system
Several states announced a ban on large gatherings ahead of the Hindu festival of Holi this weekend
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#5

Post by tencats »

Variants of Variants Seen In COVID-Ravaged Brazil

March 24, 2021
https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/2021032 ... ged-brazil
The unchecked spread of the more contagious coronavirus variants in Brazil appears to have created even more dangerous versions of the virus that causes COVID-19.

A team of researchers from Fiocruz, a large public health research lab run by Brazil's Ministry of Health, documented the changes. Their findings were recently posted in a preprint on Virological.org, ahead of peer review.

The study describes 11 coronavirus sequences from five Brazilian states. Each had telltale changes to the virus receptor, making it one of the known variants. But, each also had additional changes to another important region of the virus known as the N-terminal domain (NTD).

The changes were deletions of important antibody-binding sites. Many of these were key deletions of a mutation that has arisen independently in other circulating variants and has been seen in viral mutations in convalescent patients with cancer, suggesting that it conveys an important advantage to the virus.

Image

:snippity:
A separate study, published earlier this month in the journal Science, found that other deletions also hamper antibodies. In response to infection or a vaccine, our bodies make a whole orchestra of y-shaped antibodies that are each designed to grab onto a virus in slightly different places. So losing one of these antibody docking sites on the virus, by itself, isn't necessarily cause for alarm. But the more the coronavirus shape shifts and changes, the more our immune defenses lose their collective punch, and eventually the changes allow the virus to cause a reinfection or to defeat the protection created by a vaccine.

Read it all at https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/2021032 ... ged-brazil
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#6

Post by RTH10260 »

Headache and runny nose linked to Delta variant

A headache, sore throat and runny nose are now the most commonly reported symptoms linked to Covid infection in the UK, researchers say.

Prof Tim Spector, who runs the Zoe Covid Symptom study, says catching the Delta variant can feel "more like a bad cold" for younger people.

But although they may not feel very ill, they could be contagious and put others at risk.

Anyone who thinks they may have Covid should take a test.

The classic Covid symptoms people should look out for, the NHS says, are:
- cough
- fever
- loss of smell or taste

But Prof Spector says these are now less common, based on the data the Zoe team has been receiving from thousands of people who have logged their symptoms on an app.


https://www.bbc.com/news/health-57467051
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Lani
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#7

Post by Lani »

There are so many variants that we have now reached lambda in the alphabet.

The unusual Lambda variant is rapidly spreading in South America. Here’s what we know.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/scie ... 48368741AA
A coronavirus variant known as Lambda, which has largely slid under the radar for the past nine months, is now causing almost all new infections in Peru.

Lambda (also known as C.37) was first detected in Peru in August 2020 and has spread to 29 countries, many in Latin America. And, since January 20, 2021, 668 Lambda infections have been reported in the United States. In Peru, Lambda is now responsible for more than 90 percent of new COVID-19 cases, a steep rise from less than 0.5 percent in December. The country has already suffered the world’s worst mortality due to COVID-19; the disease has killed about 0.54 percent of the population.

The Lambda variant likely caused the high number of infections during the second wave between the end of March and April, Peruvian Minister of Health Óscar Ugarte said in a news conference. In neighboring Chile, where the primary vaccine is China’s CoronaVac, Lambda accounts for 31 percent of sequenced cases in the last 60 days. The high case numbers are occurring even though 58.6 percent of Chile’s population is fully vaccinated and another 10 percent has received a single dose. The poor efficacy of the vaccine maybe partly to blame. A study by the University of Chile found that a single dose of the CoronaVac vaccine was only 3 percent effective, but that rose to 56.5 percent after both doses.
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#8

Post by RTH10260 »

China published research on the Delta variant.
Does the Delta variant have a different timeline? These researchers wanted to answer two questions:

How long does it take for someone to get sick or test positive after exposure to the Delta variant?
How infectious would those people be at that point?

The answers quickly became clear: People infected with the Delta variant were getting sick much faster after being exposed. They had viral loads more than 1,000 times higher at that point, meaning they were much more likely to spread the illness to others. This also meant they were becoming infectious earlier and more quickly.

Looking only at cases for which they could determine the exact time of exposure, researchers found that the time interval from exposure to positive PCR test ranged from three to five days, with a peak at 3.71 days. In contrast, data from the 2020 outbreak showed that it took an average of six days from exposure to positive test with a range of five to eight days and a peak at 5.61.

Not only were Delta-infected individuals testing positive two days earlier, on average, they were also way more infectious by the time their infections were detectible. And by “way more infectious,” we’re talking about viral loads that were an average of 1,260 times higher than those observed in individuals infected with the original strain of the virus.
taken from
When should I be tested? How soon will I be contagious? Are things different with Delta?

JULY 21, 2021 | KIM SCHIVE

The ever-growing prevalence of the Delta variant in this country and elsewhere — along with a new study of a Delta-variant outbreak in mainland China — is changing our answers to these two questions.

The Chinese study focuses on a cluster of 168 cases, the first local transmission of the Delta SARS-CoV-2 variant in mainland China. The first infected individual was identified on May 21, 2021. In less than a month, 167 additional cases had been linked to that first case through robust contact tracing, molecular epidemiology, and phylogenetic analysis. As each new infection was identified, researchers identified that person’s close contacts, isolated them, and began daily PCR testing.

People infected with the original form of the SARS-CoV-2 virus were mostly likely to develop symptoms and/or test positive between five and six days after exposure to the virus. They typically became infectious — able to transmit the virus to others — during the 48 hours before they became symptomatic or tested positive.

https://medical.mit.edu/covid-19-update ... rent-delta
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#9

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https://www.kmov.com/news/st-louis-rest ... d1cbc.html
T. LOUIS (KMOV.com) -- A St. Louis restaurant group announced Wednesday that they are no longer accepting indoor reservations for unvaccinated people.

Ben Poremba, chef and owner of the Bengelina Hospitality Group made the announcement on social media. The group owns and operates Nixta, Olio, Elaia, The Benevolent King and La Patisserie Chouquette restaurants.
Bengelina Hospitality Group not accepting indoor reservations for unvaccinated customers

Poremba asks guests who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 to not make an indoor reservation as outdoor dining is still available.

When asked if guests would have to show proof of being vaccinated, Ben said "No, but a question will be prompted when you make the reservations in order to complete it."
"Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears… To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies." -Octavia E. Butler
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Lani
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#10

Post by Lani »

Delta is so yesterday.

Lambda was first reported in Houston on July 19. Now it's in at least 44 states, but no significant clusters yet.
The Lambda variant of the coronavirus, first identified in Peru and now spreading in South America, is highly infectious and more resistant to vaccines than the original version of the virus the emerged from Wuhan, China, Japanese researchers have found.

In laboratory experiments, they found that three mutations in Lambda's spike protein, known as RSYLTPGD246-253N, 260 L452Q and F490S, help it resist neutralization by vaccine-induced antibodies. Two additional mutations, T76I and L452Q, help make Lambda highly infectious, they found. In a paper posted on Wednesday on bioRxiv ahead of peer review, the researchers warn that with Lambda being labeled a "Variant of Interest" by the World Health Organization, rather than a "Variant of Concern," people might not realize it is a serious ongoing threat.

Although it is not clear yet whether this variant is more dangerous than the Delta now threatening populations in many countries, senior researcher Kei Sato of the University of Tokyo believes "Lambda can be a potential threat to the human society.
https://www.reuters.com/business/health ... 021-08-02/

However, one report I read stated that the Japanese researchers were using less effective vaccines for their studies. IIRC, Sinovac was one of them.
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#11

Post by Slim Cognito »

Crap! I 'm never going to get to visit Scotland. We'd planned to go next summer, but we've given up on that, hopefully 2023. Now, who the hell knows?
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#12

Post by RTH10260 »

What is C.1.2, the new Covid variant in South Africa, and should we be worried?
The C.1.2 strain has scientists’ attention because it possesses mutations within the genome similar to those seen in variants of interest, like Delta

Melissa Davey
Tue 31 Aug 2021 06.01 BST

A new Covid variant detected in South Africa has made headlines around the world.

On Monday the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa issued an alert about the “C.1.2 lineage”, saying it had been detected in all provinces in the country, but at a relatively low rate.

C.1.2 was first detected in May, the alert said, but Delta is still the dominant variant spreading in South Africa and the world.

A pre-print, non peer-reviewed paper published about the variant said C.1.2 “has since been detected across the majority of the provinces in South Africa and in seven other countries spanning Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania”.

The C.1.2 lineage has drawn the attention of scientists because despite its low rate in the population, it possesses mutations within the genome similar to those seen in variants of interest and variants of concern, like the Delta variant, as well as some additional mutations.



https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... be-worried
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#13

Post by Slim Cognito »

I read an article today, i think thru Yahoo, saying Pfizer knows its days of efficacy are numbered due to new variants, but said they should still be able to get a new one up and running quickly. I'll see if I can find the link.

Wow, that was fast. I wish everything turned up this easily.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2021/08/ ... yptr=yahoo

Why Pfizer Thinks Its COVID Vaccine's Days Could Be Numbered
Rapid coronavirus mutations could eventually make current COVID-19 vaccines useless.
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Re: New Covid-19 Variants

#14

Post by RTH10260 »

When Will the Delta Surge End?
The variant retreated unexpectedly in Britain and India, but has begun to rebound. The United States may take an even bumpier path, scientists said.

By Apoorva Mandavilli, Benjamin Mueller and Shalini Venugopal Bhagat
Sept. 1, 2021

The United States has entered the fourth wave of the pandemic — or fifth, depending on which expert you ask. As the vaccination campaign lags and the contagious Delta variant spreads, cases and hospitalizations are at their highest since last winter. Covid-19 deaths, too, are on a steady incline.

After every other peak has come a trough, however, often for reasons that were not immediately obvious. In Britain, where the variant is also the dominant form of the coronavirus, daily cases fell from a peak of 60,000 in mid-July to half that within two weeks, though they have since been climbing again.

In India, the numbers spiked to more than 400,000 daily cases this spring; experts estimated that the true figure could be more than 20 times greater. The unimaginable toll shocked many who had declared that the country had successfully eluded the virus. But then, in June, infections fell drastically.

Scientists are struggling to understand why Delta outbreaks in those countries dissipated, even if temporarily, and what that may mean for similar surges, including the one in the United States.



https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/01/heal ... itain.html
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