Pirate's Cove

No, no, this is totally from some rando eating a bat in a wet market right down the road from an instituted that does lots of research into viruses

WHO meets to discuss new, ‘heavily mutated’ COVID-19 variant

The World Health Organization is holding a meeting Friday to discuss the dramatic rise in COVID-19 cases in South Africa that has been blamed on a new variant of the virus.

Joe Phaahla, South Africa’s minister of health, identified the new variant as B.1.1.529, and said it seems highly contagious among young people.

The BBC reported that the new variant seems to be the most heavily mutated so far in the outbreak. James Gallagher, the health correspondent, wrote that one scientist described the variant as “horrific.” He said the meeting of the WHO will likely result in the variant receiving a Greek code-name, like the delta variant.

“This variant did surprise us,” Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Center for South Africa’s Epidemic Response and Innovation, told the news outlet. “It has a big jump on evolution [and] many more mutations that we expected.” (snip)

Aris Katzourakis, an expert at virus evolution at the University of Oxford, said, “A burning question is does it reduce vaccine effectiveness because it has so many changes.” (snip)

U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said there were concerns the new variant “may be more transmissible” than the dominant delta strain, and “the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective” against it.

But, wait what’s this

The U.K. added six African countries to its travel quarantine list on Thursday after a new, potentially more-transmissible variant of Covid-19 was identified there. The BBC said the countries are South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho and Eswatini.

Twenty-two positive cases of the variant, which is being called B.1.1.529, have been recorded in South Africa, according to multiple reports. Some 59 cases have been detected worldwide, and only in South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana. But some experts are concerned.

Wait, we’re freaking over 59 cases? Perhaps it is more contagious, and evades vaccines, but, I cannot one article saying that the effects of what might soon have it’s own designator (Nu) is dangerous for its effects. Just like some regular flu strains are not as bad, how will this act? Really bad? Minor?

(Hot Air) Peacock called the array of mutations on Nu’s spike protein “horrific” but noted that there’s no conclusive evidence yet that it’s more transmissible than Delta. A false alarm about a seemingly scary new variant — a “scariant” — would be nothing new during the pandemic. (Remember the New York and California variants?) Still, experts in the field are unusually alarmed by the early data from South Africa. This entire thread from a scientist at University College London is worth reading, but especially this:

Just another reason to shut everything down, keep people living in fear, and keep them under the thumb of government?