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Covid Variants

We have ALL your misinformation, plus some TRUE FACTS and SCIENCE.
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Volkonski
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Re: Covid Variants

#101

Post by Volkonski »

COVID-19 testing labs see materials shortages straining system amid omicron surge

https://abc13.com/omicron-variant-covid ... ce=twitter
The same labs shouldering much of the nation's polymerase chain reaction (PCR) COVID-19 testing are getting slammed yet again amid the omicron surge, according to ABC News. But now, lab staff members are faced with a new challenge. Their workforces are getting hit by the virus they have been tasked with tracking.

The American Clinical Laboratory Association (ACLA), the national trade association representing some of the leading clinical labs, is now warning of a staffing shortage as more workers are getting infected.

:snippity:

Omicron is making manpower the supply issue, and staff depleted by sick leave are struggling to contend with the demand caused by the new variant.

ACLA noted that hiring additional and/or temporary workers takes time and training and is occurring in an environment with competition among other health care sectors also experiencing workforce strain.
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Re: Covid Variants

#102

Post by Volkonski »

Some COVID patients still infectious after more than 2 months, study warns

https://www.texomashomepage.com/news/so ... ource=t.co
People who contract COVID-19 could still be infectious for more than two months, warns new research. Of course, remaining contagious for this long is far less likely, but scientists hope to expand the study to get a better idea of just how many people could be long carriers.

Researchers at the University of Exeter in England report that 13 percent of patients are still infectious and show clinically-relevant levels of the virus after 10 days of quarantine. In the most extreme of these cases, individuals were still carrying the virus for 68 days. There is nothing “clinically remarkable” about the people who remain with high levels of the virus, according to the study, which means it could happen to anyone.

For the study, researchers applied a new test on 176 people who had tested positive on standard PCRs to determine whether the virus was still active. The results suggest the new test should be applied in settings where people are vulnerable to stop the spread of COVID-19.

“While this is a relatively small study, our results suggest that potentially active virus may sometimes persist beyond a 10 day period, and could pose a potential risk of onward transmission,” says study co-author Lorna Harries, a professor at the University of Exeter Medical School, in a statement. “Furthermore, there was nothing clinically remarkable about these people, which means we wouldn’t be able to predict who they are”
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Re: Covid Variants

#103

Post by filly »

So I have a big question: can someone who died from COVID donate organs? I ask because my BFF's brother was an "organ donor." His wife touted this in his obit.

Did a bit of Googling yesterday and most of the stuff I found was from early in the pandemic, and the answer was a resounding NO. I saw at least one case where a woman who received a transplant from someone infected with COVID developed it and died.

So if people can remain infectious for a long period of time, how is this possible? What organs would be in good enough shape to transplant anyway? Corneas?
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Re: Covid Variants

#104

Post by RTH10260 »

just my chf0.02 - due to covid oxygen content of the blood is seriously depleted, I infer that all organs are therefore lacking the normal levels, and my conclusion is that all organs are substandard for a transplant from a patient with accute covid infection.
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Re: Covid Variants

#105

Post by sugar magnolia »

filly wrote: Fri Jan 14, 2022 1:16 pm So I have a big question: can someone who died from COVID donate organs? I ask because my BFF's brother was an "organ donor." His wife touted this in his obit.

Did a bit of Googling yesterday and most of the stuff I found was from early in the pandemic, and the answer was a resounding NO. I saw at least one case where a woman who received a transplant from someone infected with COVID developed it and died.

So if people can remain infectious for a long period of time, how is this possible? What organs would be in good enough shape to transplant anyway? Corneas?
They also take bones, ligaments, skin, veins and tendons. I think all of those components can be treated and used even when organs can't. If you're a donor, they use as much as they possibly can.
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Re: Covid Variants

#106

Post by pipistrelle »

https://news.uchicago.edu/story/researc ... ents-covid
Many treatments for COVID-19 focus on the spike protein that the virus uses to bind to human cells. While those treatments work well on the original variant, they may not be as effective on future ones. The Omicron variant, for example, has several spike mutations.

Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering Prof. Juan de Pablo and his group have used advanced computational simulations to examine another protein that’s crucial to the virus’s replication and remains relatively consistent across different coronaviruses. This protein, called Nsp13, belongs to a class of enzymes known as helicases, which play a role in how the virus replicates.

Through this work, the scientists have also uncovered three different compounds that can bind to Nsp13 and inhibit virus replication. Given the consistency of helicase sequences across coronavirus variants, these inhibitors could serve as a valuable starting point for designing drugs that target helicases in order to treat COVID-19.
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Re: Covid Variants

#107

Post by Volkonski »

Laurie Garrett
@Laurie_Garrett
·
18m
The #COVID19 status report from Northern Europe starts in this thread with #Denmark . I'd add that Danish health authorities say more than half of all new cases are now the BA.2 subtype of the #Omicron variant -- a new form of #SARSCoV2 . Unclear what role it is playing in surge.
Quote Tweet
Shane Woodford
@WoodfordinDK
· 5h
#Denmark is reporting 46,590 #COVID19 infections, incl 2,856 reinfections, and 14 more #coronavirus deaths in the last day. Yesterday there were 474,238 total #COVID tests done, of which 213,616 were PCR tests equaling a positivity percentage of 21.81%. #COVID19dk #Danmark
Show this thread
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filly
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Re: Covid Variants

#108

Post by filly »

Germany also has it spreading like crazy!
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Re: Covid Variants

#109

Post by RTH10260 »

same as per WaPo
There’s a new version of omicron but so far it doesn’t appear to be more dangerous

Anders Fomsgaard, a respected virologist in Denmark, says the world is five steps behind the coronavirus.

By Lenny Bernstein
Today at 7:00 p.m. EST

As a new version of the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus spreads in parts of Asia and Europe, the World Health Organization recommended Monday that officials begin investigating its characteristics to determine whether it poses new challenges for pandemic-weary nations.

Known as BA. 2, the new version of the virus is a descendant of the omicron variant responsible for huge surges of covid-19 in the United States and elsewhere around the globe. Virologists are referring to the original omicron variant as BA. 1.

“The BA. 2 descendant lineage, which differs from BA. 1 in some of the mutations, including in the spike protein, is increasing in many countries,” the WHO wrote on its website. “Investigations into the characteristics of BA. 2, including immune escape properties and virulence, should be prioritized independently (and comparatively) to BA. 1.”

What to know about the omicron variant of the coronavirus

Viruses mutate constantly, mostly in harmless ways. There is no current evidence that BA. 2 is more virulent, spreads faster or escapes immunity better than BA. 1.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2 ... icron-ba2/
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Re: Covid Variants

#110

Post by Uninformed »

“Omicron BA.2: What we know about the Covid sub-variant”:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-60233899
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Re: Covid Variants

#111

Post by Tiredretiredlawyer »

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ba2-omicr ... -covid-yet
January 25, 2022
New Mutant Omicron Feared to Be the Most Contagious Variant Yet

Scientists have known about BA.2 for weeks now. They first detected it in early December in samples from South Africa, Australia, and Canada. That was just a few weeks after officials from South Africa announced the first BA.1 cases.

BA.1—again, that’s the baseline Omicron, which has dozens of unique mutations compared to earlier SARS-CoV-2 lineages—quickly became dominant all over the world, all but wiping out the previously dominant Delta lineage in many countries.

Omicron reshaped the pandemic. It’s the most transmissible lineage yet—although it often results in less severe infections than Delta, owing in part to its tendency to stay in the throat rather than attack the lungs.

If there’s good news in this exhausting, seemingly unending pandemic, it’s that BA.2 might be more transmissible than BA.1 and every other SARS-CoV-2 lineage, but it doesn’t appear to reduce the effectiveness of the vaccines. At least, no more than BA.1 does.
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Re: Covid Variants

#112

Post by Volkonski »

Get those masks back on!

Reuters
@Reuters
·
16m
Spreading version of Omicron resists all but one drug; T cell defense vs Omicron deficient in some http://reut.rs/3LwzaLK
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Re: Covid Variants

#113

Post by AndyinPA »

I haven't taken mine off yet. I was just reading an article on WAPO about when to take the masks off. While cases have fallen really sharply here, transmission is still high. I was reading good statistics about my county, but if it's high, it's high, and I'm not taking it off. And I wear only a KN95 mask now.

We have tickets to Hamilton in less than two weeks. It's only vaxxed people, not a full house, but I'm still nervous.
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Re: Covid Variants

#114

Post by Lani »

People are being stupid about lowering restrictions and letting down their guard. Omicron is already mutating, and the lifetime impact of having covid is becoming better known.
The Omicron coronavirus variant is likely the fastest-spreading virus in human history, according to experts. While one person with the measles virus—a standout among infectious microbes—might infect 15 others within 12 days, Omicron jumps from person to person so quickly that a single case can give rise to six cases after four days, 36 cases after eight days and 216 cases after 12 days. By mid-February, Omicron will infect up to 40 percent of the U.S. population, one projection estimates, vastly more than the 8 percent that get sick from flu each season.

:snippity:

“I’m not confident that we can rest on our laurels and say this is all over,” Barclay says. With infections continuing to spread and evolve among many populations around the world, the virus is going to come up with more ways to transmit—including ones that scientists haven’t even thought of yet.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... ontagious/
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Re: Covid Variants

#115

Post by Lani »

Well, crikey. More about the new variant. This is moving fast.

Covid-19 Omicron outbreak: New variant BA.2 could be worse than predecessors for public health, study warns
Experts are worried a new subvariant of Omicron could see a devastating surge in infections and deaths around the world just as the pandemic appears to be retreating.

Eric Feigl-Ding, a Harvard-trained epidemiologist who was among the first researchers to sound the alarm about the seriousness of Covid-19, wrote that the subvariant — BA.2 — is "seriously bad news".

"Even the World Health Organisation is getting very concerned about BA.2 variant outcompeting and displacing old Omicron," he wrote on social media.

He wrote that news out of Denmark, where the subvariant represents 90 per cent of all new cases, suggests it is having significant health impacts.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid- ... SLQJ3CVKM/

There are a lot of unknowns at this time.
However, there's mixed evidence on the severity of BA.2 in the real world. Hospitalizations continue to decline in countries where BA.2 has gained a foothold, like South Africa and the UK. But in Denmark, where BA.2 has become the leading cause of infections, hospitalizations and deaths are rising, according to WHO.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/health/b ... index.html
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Re: Covid Variants

#116

Post by RTH10260 »

Can New Covid Variant Deltacron Replace Omicron? What Scientists Say
Deltacron's story begins in mid-February, when scientists at the Institut Pasteur in Paris uploaded a genetic sequence of the coronavirus that looked very different from previous sequences. The virus sample had come from an elderly man in northern France and looked odd.

Updated: March 22, 2022 1:26 pm IST
  • Can New Covid Variant Deltacron Replace Omicron? What Scientists Say
    Time will tell if Deltacron Covid will displace Omicron, and if it will be better at evading immunity
Dublin: In many countries, as restrictions lift and freedoms are restored, there's a general feeling that the pandemic is over. There is, however, still the significant concern that a dangerous new variant could emerge.

This happened when omicron arrived, but we got lucky with that one. Omicron turned out to be more transmissible, but mercifully it hasn't caused an increase in severe disease in most countries where it is dominant.

But this wasn't guaranteed. Variants crop up randomly, and new ones have the potential to be more dangerous than previous ones. Another has just arrived, and is currently going by the name deltacron. It is – as you can probably guess – a hybrid of delta and omicron, the two variants dominant most recently.

Deltacron's story begins in mid-February, when scientists at the Institut Pasteur in Paris uploaded a genetic sequence of the coronavirus that looked very different from previous sequences. The virus sample had come from an elderly man in northern France and looked odd. Most of its genetic sequence was the same as delta's, which was dominant worldwide up until late last year, but the part of the sequence that encodes the virus's spike protein – a key part of its external structure, which it uses to get inside cells in the body – came from omicron.

By March, three further hybrid genetic sequences had been reported, this time in the US. There are now over 60 logged, across France, the Netherlands, Denmark, the US and the UK.

There may, however, be different deltacrons. Scientists at the Institut Pasteur have said the deltacron sequences reported in the UK and US have certain differences from those found in other countries. They've said that it might be necessary to add a number to these different forms of deltacron, to indicate which is which.




https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/deltacr ... us-2835737
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Re: Covid Variants

#117

Post by AndyinPA »

The numbers in my county are very low, but my last report was that 10 percent of the variants in the last week are the new variant. I will follow that closely over the coming weeks to see what happens with that percentage.
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Re: Covid Variants

#118

Post by Lani »

Tomorrow in Hawaii - no masking inside, no proof of vax to travel to Hawaii.

Lucky me, I'm flying to Oahu on Tuesday. :( I'm going to wear a mask anyway.
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Re: Covid Variants

#119

Post by AndyinPA »

Lani wrote: Fri Mar 25, 2022 1:43 am Tomorrow in Hawaii - no masking inside, no proof of vax to travel to Hawaii.

Lucky me, I'm flying to Oahu on Tuesday. :( I'm going to wear a mask anyway.
Most people here are maskless, including me. But I carry one with me, and I've worn it when I felt it necessary. I still see some people who are wearing them, and I assume they have a good reason, and I am not one to judge them.
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Re: Covid Variants

#120

Post by Volkonski »

“If everyone fought for their own convictions there would be no war.” ― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
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Re: Covid Variants

#121

Post by Lani »

AndyinPA wrote: Fri Mar 25, 2022 12:41 pm
Lani wrote: Fri Mar 25, 2022 1:43 am Tomorrow in Hawaii - no masking inside, no proof of vax to travel to Hawaii.

Lucky me, I'm flying to Oahu on Tuesday. :( I'm going to wear a mask anyway.
Most people here are maskless, including me. But I carry one with me, and I've worn it when I felt it necessary. I still see some people who are wearing them, and I assume they have a good reason, and I am not one to judge them.
As of today, masks are no longer required inside. Well, I had a pleasant surprise! I was running errands, and saw that almost everyone getting out their car put on a mask. Everyone entering a business wore one. In fact, businesses are still requiring masks! And airports, as well.

Meanwhile, my island now has the highest percentage of new cases. :(
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Re: Covid Variants

#122

Post by RTH10260 »

New Mutant “XE” Omicron Variant May Be The Most Transmissible Version Of Covid Yet, According To WHO

By Tom Tapp
March 31, 2022 4:46pm

The CDC announced this week that the BA.2 Omicron variant, which is reportedly 30% more transmissible than the original BA.1 Omicron strain — has become dominant among new cases sequenced in the United States. That’s a startling rise for a variant that was less than 1% of all sequences as recently as January. But, just as Americans are hearing about BA.2, there’s already a newer, even more transmissible variant on the rise.

There are actually three new variants that have been given designations. According to a recently-released report from the UK Health Services Agency, the two being called XD and XF are combinations of Delta and BA.1, or so-called “Deltacron” strains, which have been talked about for months but made no significant inroads in any country.

XD is present in several European countries, but has not been detected in the UK, according to the report. XF caused a small cluster in the UK but has not been detected there since February 15. The variant of greater concern, it seems, is the one dubbed XE.

Like the other two new arrivals, XE is a recombinant strain, meaning it is made up of two previously-distinct variants. But it is not a Deltacron mix. XE is actually made up of the original Omicron (BA.1) and the newer Omicron (BA.2) which has taken over in the U.S.

The World Health Organization issued a report yesterday with some preliminary findings about XE.

“The XE recombinant was first detected in the United Kingdom on 19 January and >600 sequences have been reported and confirmed since,” reads the WHO document. “Early-day estimates indicate a community growth rate advantage of ~10% as compared to BA.2, however this finding requires further confirmation.”



https://deadline.com/2022/03/new-xe-cov ... 234992060/
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Re: Covid Variants

#123

Post by busterbunker »

Mask on! (clap clap)
Mask off! (clap clap)
Mask on, mask off, the masker! (clap clap)
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Re: Covid Variants

#124

Post by AndyinPA »

:clap: :clap:
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Re: Covid Variants

#125

Post by AndyinPA »

https://www.thedailybeast.com/two-omicr ... ovid-virus
The first subvariant of Omicron, the latest major variant of the novel coronavirus, was bad. BA.1 drove record cases and hospitalizations in many countries starting last fall.

The second subvariant, BA.2, was worse in some countries—setting new records for daily cases across China and parts of Europe.

Now BA.1 and BA.2 have combined to create a third subvariant. XE, as it’s known, is a “recombinant”—the product of two viruses interacting “Frankenstein”-style in a single host.With its long list of mutations, XE could be the most contagious form of the coronavirus yet. “From the WHO reports, it does appear to have a bit more of an edge in terms of transmissibility,” Stephanie James, the head of a COVID testing lab at Regis University in Colorado, told The Daily Beast.

But don’t panic just yet. The same mix of subvariants that produced XE might also protect us from it. Coming so quickly after the surge of BA.1 and BA.2 cases, XE is on track to hit a wall of natural immunity—the antibodies left over from past infection in hundreds of millions of people.
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