Deadly Wuhan Coronavirus

nivek

As Above So Below
Coronavirus Variant Is Indeed More Transmissible, New Study Suggests

Researchers warn that the British variant is so contagious that new control measures, including closing down schools and universities, may be necessary.


A team of British scientists released a worrying study on Wednesday of the new coronavirus variant sweeping the United Kingdom. They warned that the variant is so contagious that new control measures, including closing down schools and universities, might be necessary. Even that may not be enough, they noted, saying, “It may be necessary to greatly accelerate vaccine rollout.”

Nicholas Davies, the lead author of the study, said that the model should also serve as a warning to other countries where the variant may have already spread.

“The preliminary findings are pretty convincing that more rapid vaccination is going to be a really important thing for any country that has to deal with this or similar variants,” Dr. Davies, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said in an interview.

The study, released by the Center for Mathematical Modeling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has not yet undergone review by a scientific journal. The study compares a series of models as predictors of data on infections, hospitalizations and other variables; other researchers are studying the variant in laboratory experiments to determine if it is biologically distinct.


The study found no evidence that the variant was more deadly than others. But the researchers estimated that it was 56 percent more contagious. On Monday, the British government released an initial estimate of 70 percent.

Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who was not involved in the study, said that it presented a compelling explanation of the past and potential future of the variant.

“The overall message of it is solid and consistent with what we’ve been seeing from other sources of information,” he said in an interview. “Does this matter? Yes. Is there evidence for increased transmission? Yes. Is that going to impact the next few months? Yes. Those are all, I think, pretty solid.”

A New Variant

A series of tiny mutations found in many British samples of the coronavirus may help the virus spread more easily. The coronavirus variant is known as B.1.1.7.

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The variant, which came to the attention of British researchers earlier this month, has been rapidly spreading in London and eastern England. It carries a set of 23 mutations, some of which may make it more contagious.


Dr. Davies and his colleagues found more evidence that the variant does indeed spread more rapidly than others. For example, they ruled out the possibility that it was becoming more common in some regions of the U.K. because people in those places move around more and are more likely to come into contact with each other. Data recorded by Google, indicating the movements of individual cellphone users over time, showed no such difference.

The researchers built different mathematical models and tested each one as an explanation for the variant’s spread. They analyzed which model of the spread best predicted the number of new cases that actually were confirmed, as well as hospitalization and deaths.

The researchers concluded that the variant is able to spread to more people on average than other variants are. Dr. Davies cautioned that their estimate of 56 percent more contagious was still rough, because they are still gathering data about the variant’s most recent spread. “I think when we get more of that curve, we’ll be more certain,” he said.

Still, he said, even with the data he and his colleagues have so far, he felt confident that the new variant must be taken very seriously. “I do feel that with the totality of the evidence, it’s a strong case,” he said.

Dr. Davies and his colleagues then projected what the new variant would do over the next six months and built models that factored in different levels of restrictions. Without a more substantial vaccine rollout, they warned, “cases, hospitalizations, I.C.U. admissions and deaths in 2021 may exceed those in 2020.”

Closing schools until February could buy Britain some time, the researchers found, but lifting those extra restrictions would then cause a major rebound of cases.

Dr. Davies and his colleagues also took into account the protection that vaccines will provide. Vaccine experts are confident that coronavirus vaccines will be able to block the new variant, although that has to be confirmed by laboratory experiments that are now underway.


To look at the impact of the current rate of vaccinations, the researchers made a model in which 200,000 people were vaccinated each week. That pace was too slow to have much effect on the outbreak. “That kind of pace wouldn’t really be able to support much relaxation of any of the control measures,” Dr. Davies said.

But when they raised the vaccinations to 2 million a week, they saw a reduction in the peak burden on I.C.U.s. Whether the U.K. can ramp up vaccinations by a factor of 10 is unknown.

As of Tuesday, the variant had not been identified in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Given the small fraction of U.S. infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected,” they warned.

The United States is vaccinating its citizens more slowly than expected. That could potentially become a problem if the variant in the U.K. became widespread in the United States as well.

“You need to be able to get whatever barriers to transmission you can out there as soon as possible,” Dr. Hanage said.

Dr. Davies cautioned that the model he and his colleagues analyzed was based, like any model, on a set of assumptions, some of which may turn out to be wrong. For instance, the rate at which infected people die from Covid-19 may continue to drop as doctors improve at caring for hospitalized patients. Uncertainties remain as to whether the new variant is more contagious in children, and if so, by how much.

They also did not take into account other tools for stopping the spread of the variant, such as an aggressive program to test people and isolate those who are infected. “That’s a limitation of the paper,” Dr. Davies said. The researchers are now starting to analyze new possibilities such as that one.


Still, Dr. Davies and his colleagues wrote in the conclusion to their study, “there is an urgent need to consider what new approaches may be required to sufficiently reduce the ongoing transmission of SARS-CoV-2.”

Alessandro Vespignani, director of the Network Science Institute at Northeastern University in Boston, who was not involved in the study, said of the new estimates, “Unfortunately, this is another twist in the plot.”

“While we were all rejoicing for the vaccine,” he added, “here is the possibility of a change of epidemiological context that makes our next few months much more complex and more perilous to navigate. Evidence is accumulating that the variant is more transmissible, and this implies that it will likely require an even greater effort to keep spreading under control.”

Dr. Hanage cautioned that the model had some shortcomings. The researchers assumed that all people younger than 20 had a 50 percent chance of spreading the disease. Although that might be true for younger children, Dr. Hanage said, it is not for teenagers. “That’s the weakest part of their model,” he said.

Nonetheless, he said, the study provided an important glimpse into the country’s possible futures. “It’s not a forecast, it’s not a prediction, it’s not saying this will happen,” he said. “It is saying that if you don’t take it seriously, this is the kind of thing that could very easily happen.”


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nivek

As Above So Below
Here's a chart of mortality across Europe comparing the first and second waves of covid...

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nivek

As Above So Below
Fast-spreading UK coronavirus variant: All your questions answered

Here's everything we know so far about this novel strain

A scary new strain of coronavirus, innocuously named B.1.1.7, has recently exploded across southeast England, prompting the government to tighten lockdowns on the region. Though we don't know all the details, experts are increasingly confident it is more easily transmitted than other strains. Here's everything we know so far about this novel strain.

What is it?

The B.1.1.7 strain of SARS-CoV-2 is a version of the virus with 23 mutations, eight of which are in the spike protein the virus uses to bind to and enter human cells, Science Magazine reported.

Where did it come from?

It was first detected Sept. 21 in Kent County in England, then took off and spread in November, according to the World Health Organization.

Since then, it has become the most common variant in England, representing more than 50% of new cases diagnosed between October and Dec. 13 in the U.K., according to the WHO.

However, some scientists now believe that the virus may have mutated in a person who was immunocompromised, according to Science Magazine. That's because, unlike the flu, the novel coronavirus can correct mistakes when it replicates, and so tends to have a fairly stable genome, Live Science previously reported. However, studies have shown that people who have weakened immune systems – because they are taking immunosuppressant drugs or are being treated with chemotherapy, for instance – may harbor infectious virus for months. That, in turn, would give the virus many chances to acquire mutations that help it replicate or evade the immune system.

What do these mutations do?

We don't know for sure. Viruses mutate all the time, and most of these changes don't affect how deadly or infectious the virus is. In this case, some of these mutations may have arisen purely by chance and may not affect the function of the virus.

But three mutations, in particular, have worried experts.

One, a two amino-acid deletion known as 69-70Delta, was first detected separately in a patient being treated with immunosuppressants who developed COVID-19. The patient received remdesevir, convalescent plasma and neutralizing antibodies, but died months later. Though the virus did not initially have this deletion, it acquired it over months, researchers reported in a preprint article published Dec. 19 to the medRiv database. (It has not been peer-reviewed.) The authors suspect it evolved to evade the immune system. Another wrinkle associated with this deletion is that it can make one of the targets of SARS-CoV-2 PCR tests – known as the S gene – falsely test negative. Some tests only look for positives in this S gene and would therefore miss the new variant. Most PCR assays, however, look for three separate regions of the spike protein, so those assays won't be affected, the WHO said.

Another mutation, known as N501Y, alters the key amino acids that make up the so-called receptor-binding domain of SARS-CoV-2, where amino acid asparagine (N) has been replaced with tyrosine (Y) in the part of the virus that latches onto the ACE2 receptor on human cells, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A September study in the journal Cell found this variant binds more tightly to the ACE2 receptor than other versions of the coronavirus – at least in a lab dish.

Dozens of samples of SARS-CoV-2 from South Africa and Australia have tested positive for this mutation, but lab tests suggest the South African and U.K. variants separately evolved the same mutation. That suggests it may provide an evolutionary advantage to the virus.

The third suspicious mutation is P681H, which is also in the receptor-binding domain of the virus. According to preliminary information posted by the COVID-19 Genomics Consortium UK, this mutation sits next to the "furin cleavage site," which is where the spike protein must be cleaved in order for the virus to enter cells, according to Science Magazine.

Does it spread more easily?

Yes. Experts now think the new variant is between 50% and 74% more transmissible than other dominant strains, according to a study by the Center for Mathematical Modeling and Infectious Diseases (CMMID) that has not yet been peer-reviewed. The WHO estimates this would tack on 0.4 to the basic reproductive number R, which dictates how many people each infected person would spread the virus to.

Based on models of that growth, the new variant could be responsible for 90% of all new COVID-19 cases in London and East and South England by mid-January, that study found.

Is it more deadly?

We don't know, but experts suspect it is not. However, if it spreads much more easily, that means more people will be hospitalized. Once hospitals become overwhelmed, the quality of care of the sickest patients drops, which can lead to higher death rates than would otherwise be expected.

The CMMID study found that the new variant could explain an uptick in hospitalizations in southeast England, largely due to increased spread, not necessarily because the virus is more dangerous.

Another study, also not peer-reviewed, by CMMID, used a mathematical model to see whether the virus' rapid growth in London was due to increased infectiousness, or due to it being more severe. The latter didn't fit the data well, whereas the former fit nicely.

Has the variant spread to the U.S.?

So far, scientists haven't detected this strain anywhere in the U.S., though America has not done nearly as much genetic sequencing on viral samples as the U.K. has. For instance, as of December, the U.S. had sequenced 51,000 viral samples out of 17 million identified cases of SARS-CoV-2, according to the CDC. The U.K. has sequenced more than twice as many viral samples as the U.S., despite having slightly more than a tenth of the diagnosed cases.

Dr. Stanley Perlman, an immunologist and pediatric infectious diseases specialist at the University of Iowa, told the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) that he suspects the variant is already in the U.S. "I'd be surprised if it weren't," he said.

Can kids catch it more easily?

Several lines of evidence in the past have suggested kids might be less susceptible to the novel coronavirus. If this new variant sticks more easily to cells, there's the chance it could spread more readily among children than it did before. However, further studies will be needed to see whether that's the case.

There has been an uptick in cases in children in England at the same time that this virus has increased its prevalence. That uptick was not seen when kids first returned to schools in early fall. But schools were open while many other things were closed at this time, so it's possible schools represented one of relatively few chances the virus had to spread. We can't yet say that kids will catch and spread this variant more readily.

Will vaccines work against the new virus?

Most experts think the newly developed vaccines will still work against the novel U.K. variant. When vaccines stimulate the immune system, the body builds an arsenal of cells to bind to many different parts of the virus. Mutations in a handful of spots will likely not be enough to make the vaccine less effective, according to the CDC.

Given that 99% of the proteins on the new variant are identical to the strain the Pfizer-BioNtech mRNA vaccine targets (the Moderna vaccine is very similar), it is highly likely that the vaccine will work, BioNTech CEO Uğur Şahin said at a news briefing.

It's possible that over time a variant could emerge that will evade some of our vaccines, similar to how the flu vaccine needs to be updated every year. However, the new mRNA vaccines could be updated to reflect new mutations in about six weeks, Şahin told the Financial Times.

What can we do to stop this?

The new variant still spreads the same way as the ordinary form of the coronavirus. That means the same things everyone has been doing to prevent the spread of the virus since March will also work for the new U.K. variant: washing hands, physical distancing, masks and good ventilation. Adhering strictly to those rules and avoiding unnecessary outings will help prevent its spread.

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nivek

As Above So Below
this virus is not that bad

For some it isn't but for others you can't say that, if it wasn't that bad the hospitals would not be overloaded and we wouldn't have 2000-3000 dying each day in the US as a result...

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August

Metanoia
Australians will be ‘fully vaccinated’ against Covid by October, Greg Hunt says

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nivek

As Above So Below
Finland reports cases of both UK and South Africa coronavirus variants

Finland has become the latest country to confirm the presence of two new coronavirus variants - one stemming from the UK and the other from South Africa. Health officials say that one person has tested positive for VUI-202012/01 - the new variant that was discovered in the UK.

Finland imposed travel restrictions earlier this month on passengers from Britain amid concerns over the new variant, which is thought to be up to 70% more transmissible - meaning it can spread much faster than the original version.

Two people have also tested positive for the second variant which spread in South Africa. Finland has confirmed almost 35,137 cases of the coronavirus and 546 deaths since the pandemic began.

The Nordic country's double-blow follows reports South Korea had also confirmed the presence of the variant first reported in the UK. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said it had been seen in three people who arrived in South Korea from London on 22 December. South Korea has confirmed 57,680 cases of the coronavirus and 819 deaths since COVID-19 first took hold.

The variant has also been confirmed on the Portuguese island of Madeira, with UK arrivals again blamed for the spread.

Two people in the Canadian province of Ontario have been confirmed as infected with the variant, although they had no known travel history, exposure or high-risk contact.

Japan's first cases included a man who had visited the UK and a member of his family, while Sweden reported a case in a traveller from the UK who fell ill upon arrival and later tested positive for the variant, before going into isolation.

A case in France is a French citizen who lives in England and had left London for Tours on 19 December. He is self-isolating at home and is said to be doing fine.

Spain reported its first case of the variant on Saturday, although no further details have yet been revealed. Other cases have also been confirmed in Denmark, Italy, Gibraltar, the Netherlands, and Australia.

Dozens of countries around the world have placed restrictions on travellers from the UK since the variant was identified in southeast England.

While it is believed to spread faster, there is no evidence so far that the new variant causes more serious illness or is able to evade any of the vaccines that have been approved for use in recent weeks.

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nivek

As Above So Below
Greg Norman offers warning during ‘hideous’ COVID-19 battle

Greg Norman has detailed the severe COVID-19 symptoms that "kicked the crap" out of him as he returned to a hospital after initially thinking he had overcome the worst of the virus.

The Aussie golf legend, who lives in America, revealed a couple of days ago that his Christmas was ruined when he contracted coronavirus, as did his son Greg Norman Jr. What started out as "mild symptoms" quickly intensified and Norman endured pain like never before.

Norman told his 191,000 Instagram followers on Sunday that he was back quarantining at home after an initial visit to the emergency room, still experiencing symptoms but on a lesser level.

However, needing two consecutive negative tests to ensure he was on the path to recovery and able to stay at home, Norman’s second test came back positive and he went back to the hospital.

The 65-year-old thanked the doctors and staff at the facility where he is being treated in Palm Beach and said: "Getting an infusion of Bamlanivimab antibody. The path to full recovery. Hoping to be out later today."

Norman is in terrific physical shape and in the past has regularly posted photos to social media with his shirt off and explaining his dedicated workout routine. However, even as someone in good health, COVID-19 knocked the golfer around in a way he’s never experienced before.

"I am fit and strong and have a high tolerance for pain but this virus kicked the crap out of me like nothing I have ever experienced before," Norman wrote on Instagram.

"Muscle and joint pain on another level. Headaches that feel like a chisel going through your head scraping little bits off each time, fever, muscles that just did not want to work like yesterday walking my dog Apollo my quads and hip flexors just did not want to work due to fatigue. "Then my taste failed where beer tastes bad and wine the same. And finally at times struggling with memory of names and things. Then there is irritation."

Norman urged everyone to take the "hideous" virus seriously so they can avoid the battle he has faced. "So please take care. And for those doubters out there, do not judge or cast unwarranted comments and opinions I would not want anyone, even you, to experience this hideous virus," he said.

"So I ask, do what is right, not just for you, but your family, friends, co-workers and other people around. I am luckier than most and for that I am thankful and blessed. Also the world is blessed and science has acted and performed like never before in getting a vaccine/s for all to eventually receive. Thank you to those people. We need to get our world back in healthy harmony so we can get healthy economically and prosperously with millions and millions people getting their lives back.

"God bless those infected and who may fall unwittingly to this virus. My prayers and thoughts go out to you all. Once out of here today back to quarantine."

A week ago, Norman was playing in the PNC Championship in Florida with Norman Jr. The pair finished ninth in the father-son tournament, two places behind the headline-grabbing team of Tiger Woods and his 11-year-old son, Charlie.

Norman Jr. revealed he and his partner, Michelle, also contracted COVID-19, saying his better half "got hit hard" with "four days of fever, body aches, migraine headaches."

Norman self-quarantined after returning from the PNC Championship in Florida and tested negative for coronavirus both before and after the event as part of the PGA protocols.

However, four days into his isolation, the two-time major winner started to develop symptoms and on the advice of his doctor self-quarantined, before things got bad enough for Norman to go to the hospital for the first time.

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spacecase0

earth human
"Muscle and joint pain on another level. Headaches that feel like a chisel going through your head scraping little bits off each time, fever, muscles that just did not want to work like yesterday walking my dog Apollo my quads and hip flexors just did not want to work due to fatigue. "Then my taste failed where beer tastes bad and wine the same. And finally at times struggling with memory of names and things. Then there is irritation."
I thought it was something else getting to me,
but that sure matches what is happening to me (mostly, I can still smell and taste). it gets better and then I get worse again,
 

pepe

Celestial
I know I bang the same drum every time but it's the only one I've got.

It is spreading faster for a reason, its card is marked and will follow suit of past pandemics which faded after the second appearance and weakened. Logically this virus and all viruses come to that do fade to grey as there are zero examples of any that come back to haunt us like some are suggesting.

To have to mutate is a big disadvantage straight off the bat and this type makes mistakes that we don't correct during duplication. That's how it dies off.

It's on the run and always has been.
 
its card is marked and will follow suit of past pandemics which faded after the second appearance and weakened.
Viruses don't "weaken." And we're not dealing with a "second appearance" - it's been one long appearance featuring periods of faster and slower spread, which generally have more to do with human behavior and public policy than the virus itself....but the recent surge may also be driven in part by new mutations of the virus that help it to spread faster.

Logically this virus and all viruses come to that do fade to grey as there are zero examples of any that come back to haunt us like some are suggesting.
That's not logical; perhaps you've heard of influenza and the common cold. Most of the viruses infecting humans today are descendants of viruses that infected humans in the past.

To have to mutate is a big disadvantage straight off the bat and this type makes mistakes that we don't correct during duplication. That's how it dies off.
It doesn't have to mutate, and viruses don't just "die off."

It's on the run and always has been.
That makes no sense. You just said a moment ago: "It is spreading faster," which is correct. "Spreading faster" and "on the run" are totally contradictory.

Look - this isn't rocket science. Pandemics only end for two reasons:

1.) The virus infects such a huge fraction of the global population that the human species achieves a sufficient level of immunity that the virus basically runs out of victims to infect. We're nowhere near the percentage required to achieve herd immunity, which is probably between 80% and 90% of the global population, given the transmissibility of this virus. The percentage of people who have been infected is still in the low single digits, so it could easily take more than a decade for the pandemic to end via this mechanism. The Spanish flu only lasted about two years because it swept the globe like a raging fire and infected over 70% of the global population within that two-year time frame, which is how the human population achieved herd immunity so quickly.

2.) Humans develop a vaccine to produce their own herd immunity. So for example if only 3% of the global population has been infected by this virus, then 77% to 87% of the global population will have to be vaccinated in order to halt the pandemic by achieving the required immunity among 80% to 90% of the population.

But even then, the virus won't actually disappear; it'll stick around for many years and keep finding a small number of victims who didn't get vaccinated. And perhaps decades later it will mutate into a somewhat different virus and start another pandemic, just as this virus emerged from a long lineage of viruses.
 

pepe

Celestial
I agree with all of that but with an extra added bonus.

Why do viruses mutate then. No reason ? Surely it is to better its chances of survival and to increase the spread. If so impervious to even time itself, why bother. DNA types don't make frequent mistakes and don't need to mutate as much, RNA makes frequent mistakes and therfore frequent mutation occurs. So it needs to mutate, I'm guessing to correct the mistake and become more stable like its bigger brother.

One step ahead is where it has to be and us closing fast upon it with all our combined efforts has weakened it. Not the individual organism but its chances of permanence in advanced society. In effect we will snuff it out and maybe just maybe something, the same something that is morphing us at an epically slow pace is working like the clappers to get this one a foothold too and evolution at lighning pace is almost a super power. Needs must I guess.

I don't share you outlook but I do agree with almost all of your thinking, apart from the need for mutation and how I see this as a weakness rather than a strength and a sign or milestone if you like that its course is being ran, destination 3rd world.

I too believe in a single lineage of all viral organisms and our common cold as being number one and so on to the present day. I take it some here are starting to believe in the age of the pandemic as suggested by some experts recently.

Why does it take one to start that ball rolling.
 

nivek

As Above So Below
Mink infected with mutated coronavirus strain escaped from Oregon farm afflicted by COVID-19 outbreak

Oregon state officials confirmed that a mink infected with coronavirus escaped from a farm that was quarantined in November following an outbreak that affected both mink and humans.

The runaway mink was caught Dec. 13 by a team of state biologists, according to the Oregon Department of Agriculture, and tested positive for low levels of the virus just over a week later.

Five opossums and two cats were also captured around the same time as the mink. None of the other animals tested positive for COVID-19.

“There is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 is circulating or has been established in the wild,” said Dr. Ryan Scholz, a veterinarian for the Oregon Department of Agriculture, in a statement.

“Still, we are taking this situation very seriously and continuing to survey and trap near the farm.”

State officials declined to disclose the farm's location, citing medical privacy.

Animal welfare experts warn that farm-raised mink pose “serious concerns about disease transmission and safety protocols.”

The outbreak may affect wildlife populations, said Jonathan Evans, a legal director and attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, and may also “pose new risks” for more COVID-19 mutations.

“With a nationwide surge in COVID-19, Oregon officials must do more to reduce and control disease outbreaks from factory farms by requiring increased safety protocols for fur farms and better reporting about where these disease outbreaks are occurring,” he said in a statement to USA TODAY.

In Denmark, where a mink outbreak was first reported, the mass culling and rushed burial of the nation's entire population of mink resulted in mink "popping up" from shallow graves. A government official later resigned following his handling of the situation.

Officials confirmed the mink at the Oregon farm have recovered from the November outbreak. Guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration mandates one more round of testing before the farm is no longer under lockdown.

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nivek

As Above So Below
First reported US case of virus variant triggers questions

The new and seemingly more contagious variant of the coronavirus that has set off alarm in Britain has been reported for the first time in the U.S., in a Colorado man who hadn't been traveling, triggering a host of questions about how it got here and adding urgency to the nation's vaccination drive.

The patient, a man in his 20s from a mostly rural expanse on the edge of the metropolitan Denver area, was recovering in isolation, state officials said Tuesday. His condition was not disclosed.

The new, mutated version was first identified in Britain, where infections are soaring and the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients has surpassed the first peak seen last spring. The variant has also been found in several other countries.

"There is a lot we don’t know about this new COVID-19 variant, but scientists in the United Kingdom are warning the world that it is significantly more contagious," Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said. "The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority, and we will closely monitor this case, as well as all COVID-19 indicators, very closely."

The variant is probably still rare in the U.S., but the lack of travel history in the first case means it is spreading, perhaps seeded by visitors from Britain in November or December, said scientist Trevor Bedford, who studies the spread of COVID-19 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

"Now I’m worried there will be another spring wave due to the variant," Bedford said. "It’s a race with the vaccine, but now the virus has just gotten a little bit faster."

Colorado Politics reported a second suspected case in the state. Both patients were working in the Elbert County community of Simla. Neither is a resident of the county, suggesting the variant has spread in the state.

Public health officials are investigating other potential cases of the variant, which was confirmed by the Colorado State Laboratory, and performing contact tracing to determine its spread.

Scientists in Britain have found no evidence that it is more lethal or causes more severe illness, and they believe the vaccines now being dispensed will be effective against it. Still, authorities have blamed it for the country's spike in hospitalizations.

The discovery of the variant overseas led the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue rules on Christmas Day requiring travelers arriving from Britain to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reported the weekend before Christmas that the variant was moving rapidly through London and southeast England. The region was placed under strict lockdown measures, and dozens of countries banned flights from Britain. France also briefly barred trucks from Britain before allowing them in provided the drivers got tested for the virus.

Japan announced Monday it would bar all nonresident foreigners as a precaution.

New versions of the virus have been seen almost since it was first detected in China a year ago. It is common for viruses to undergo minor changes as they reproduce and move through a population. The fear is that mutations will become significant enough to defeat the vaccines.

South Africa has also discovered a highly contagious COVID-19 variant that is driving the country’s latest spike of cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

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nivek

As Above So Below
China is guarding ancient bat caves against journalists and scientists seeking to discover the origins of the coronavirus

China is guarding ancient caves where bats infected with coronavirus variants once lived in an attempt to control research into the outbreak, The Associated Press reported.

The caves, located in China's southern Yunnan Province, are thought to hold the key to understanding how the novel coronavirus evolved in bats. They have yielded information about other coronaviruses before.

In 2017, scientists tracked down the bats responsible for the 2003 SARS outbreak there. The region also played host to the 2012 discovery of RaTG13, a close variant of the coronavirus, which a study in February found to share 96% of its genetic makeup.

But China is taking steps to safeguard the site and control who gets access, The AP said, adding that a team of its journalists were tailed by security services and refused entry into one of the caves.


Authorities also confiscated samples taken by a team of scientists on a recent trip to the caves and police blocked access to roads and sites around the caves in late November, the AP said.

On a recent visit, the BBC reported that "unidentified men told us their job was to keep us out" and that a truck was abandoned in the road to block their convoy.

Some scientists are allowed in though most are affiliated with the Chinese military, the AP said. All research papers based on evidence from the caves must be submitted to a task force overseen by the government in Beijing "under direct orders from President Xi Jinping."

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nivek

As Above So Below
Wtf...


Vaccinated US nurse contracts COVID-19, expert says Pfizer shot needed more time to work

A nurse in California tested positive for COVID-19 more than a week after receiving Pfizer Inc's vaccine, an ABC News affiliate reported on Tuesday, but a medical expert said the body needs more time to build up protection.

Matthew W., 45, a nurse at two different local hospitals, said in a Facebook post on December 18 that he had received the Pfizer vaccine, telling the ABC News affiliate that his arm was sore for a day but that he had suffered no other side-effects.

Six days later on Christmas Eve, he became sick after working a shift in the COVID-19 unit, the report added. He got the chills and later came down with muscle aches and fatigue.

He went to a drive-up hospital testing site and tested positive for COVID-19 the day after Christmas, the report said. Christian Ramers, an infectious disease specialist with Family Health Centers of San Diego, told the ABC News affiliate that this scenario was not unexpected.

"We know from the vaccine clinical trials that it's going to take about 10 to 14 days for you to start to develop protection from the vaccine," Ramers said. "That first dose we think gives you somewhere around 50%, and you need that second dose to get up to 95%," Ramers added.

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