Corona Virus Updates Part 6

The sovereignty of my body/Soul, what goes in it rests with me. PERIOD
And if this is where the Frontier of the battle for Humanity rests
So be it
I'm taking any Mandate personally
WAKE UP
Join me, Freedom takes Effort, not compliance

a reply to: angelchemuel

Unfortunately, we aren't out of the woods yet.
The variants have yet to have their full say in this, and there are other variants to come.

It could vanish, it could get worse.

I'll be happy when people stop getting sick, and stop getting admitted to ER.

a reply to: TheAMEDDDoc

I seem to remember some Gorilla's being vaccinated a week or so ago in the news.

It has been noted that Tigers have come down with one of the early variants.
It's interesting that the B.1.1.7 (British) variant would be found in the animals tested, but whats worrying is the cardiac anomalies.
It being near London, doesn't make me surprised it was the B.1.1.7 variant.

In Texas on the other hand, it's a different thing.
Could that particular variant be more susceptible to be caught, and carried by Pets ?
Dogs sniff other dogs, and Cats just go wherever they please, they have no notion of 'social distancing'.

On a more somber covid note, I've just read that British Columbia in Canada is now the largest outbreak of the Brazilian variant (P1) outside of Brazil, due to the Ski slopes in Whistler.
They've now shut it down, and are trying to stop it from spreading around Canada and beyond.
Guardian Article about the Outbreak.

Both the BBC Livefeed and the Guardian Livefeed are reporting a small surge of the South African variant in South London.
Wandsworth and Lambeth to be precise.

That doesn't mean it's elsewhere, it probably is.

I just hope that the British people don't (literally) p!ss away months of lockdown for a few bevvies and some clothes from Primark.

Insanely, in France, 20minutes is talking about our coming out of lockdown at the beginning of May.
They do mention this is at the earliest, with a possible 15th May when we could open Bars, and restaurants, like the UK.
That they are even entertaining the thought of comparison with the UK, considering the vast chasm between our respective daily numbers (New Infections/Deaths/ER admissions) is completely self-defeating.
It's dangerous optimism, that can only fail.
They are saying something about 'Sovereign Sanitation', ie , the right for each country to do their own thing with respect to the current situation.
I would rather err on the side of pessimism, and be pleasantly surprised, than on the side of optimism, and be disappointed.
We are going to be disappointed.
There is no way on Earth (no pun intended) that France is going to get anywhere near the UK's numbers as they are now, in the next 3 to 5 weeks.
I'd rather bet i'd win the lottery.

Reminds me, I must check to see if I need to update my Euromillions ticket...

One last tidbit before kip :

20minutes had this information from Brazil last night.

52.2% of the people in ER in Brazil are under 40 years old.
Not just in hospital, but in ER.
The Brazilian variant, is a variant we want to keep well away from our shores.
They say it was probably responsible for the large number of Deaths in March.

Think we have it bad now ?, lets just wait and see...

Got the itch to upload pics, sorry for the large .png files.

The UK's 'Variants of Concern' and 'Variants under Investigation' list as of today :


Nextstrain.org Covid page (choose your region)

South African Variant : 501Y.V2
Brazilian Variant : S.484K

North America :

501Y.V2 detected in Maryland on 2nd April.
S.484K detected in Virginia 17th March, Illinois 16th March, Pennsylvania 12th March, South Carolina 5th March, Virginia 27th January.

South America :

501Y.V2 detected in Aruba on 26th February.
S.484K detected massively in Brazil (home variant), Argentina massively, and appearing in Chile, 26th February at least.

Europe :

501Y.V2 detected in Turkey, Finland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria, Monaco, Spain, France, Sweden and Ireland, going back to late January.
S.484K Detected in Netherlands 22nd January and Spain 10th December, so far.

14 Emerging variants detected so far that we can tell.

and one last pic from the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health from Feb 3rd :



Associated text to above pic (Pretty hard to figure out, but readable) :

A maximum likelihood tree of the Brazilian B.1.1.28 lineage demonstrating sequences imported to the UK. The Wuhan SARS-CoV-2 reference sequence is used as the root. Sequences for the UK (VOC202012.01) (pink) and South African (501Y.V2) (green) variants are also shown for comparison. The 28-AM-II/P.1 variants (red) are shown with the 484 K.V2 variants from England (blue) and from other countries (purple). Please see main text for additional details. Full genome SARS-CoV-2 sequences were downloaded on 19 January 2021 from GISAID (www.gisaid... .org/), aligned using MAFFT: mafft.cbrc.jp... and manually edited using BioEdit v7.2.5. Phylogenetic tree construction was performed using FastTree v2.1.11, with Shimodaira-Hasegawa-like local branch supports, and displayed using FigTree v1.4.4. We gratefully acknowledge and thank all the teams and laboratories that have deposited these sequences into GISAID to make this analysis possible (see Supplementary Acknowledgements file attached). Note that this phylogenetic tree is only intended to be illustrative and not comprehensive.

Really to bed now

Doesn't look good guys

Antibody cocktail ‘rapidly’ prevents and treats COVID, study finds. Here’s how

New results from a multi-stage clinical trial show that a cocktail of special antibodies can reduce risks of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 81% if someone is not already infected with the virus. And for those who still get infected, the drug can help clear the virus from their bodies faster and shorten the duration of their symptoms.

A separate trial found that the cocktail, called REGEN-COV, is also able to reduce people’s chances of developing coronavirus symptoms if dealing with an asymptomatic infection by 76% after three days, the American biotechnology company Regeneron announced Monday.........

it was the same drug given to former President Donald Trump when he tested positive for coronavirus in October.

a reply to: MetalThunder
See, we can use our own immune system to help others more NATURALLY and more compatibly than man made chemical compounds that our bodies are more likely to recognise as another form of invading microorganism.
Just my 'simple' way of explaining it.

Thank you for posting.

Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: MetalThunder

Checking these two sites (hard to find more info) :
Forbe s and Barrons.com

Forbes is an older article (Nov 2020), and states that the cost could be anywhere between $1500 and $6500 per dose / administration.

The Barrons one is more recent (Jan 13 2021), and states that for the USA, it's only $2100 per dose / administration.

That puts it out of reach of most of the World population.

Vaccines will have to do for now...

Just about everywhere is reporting a 'Pause' in the supply and administration of the "Janssen /Johnson & Johnson" Vaccine, due to Blood clots detected in the USA, and they want to do more tests.
Kudos on them for not pushing it through.

BBC
Guardian

"Johnson & Johnson are pausing the supply of the Vaccine to Europe."
From 20minutes in French

The US pause seems to have spurred other countries to pause as well, if they have any yet.

France is Bucking the Janssen / Johnson & Johnson trend by continuing to dish it out to the over 55's.
It's not going to make the French any more willing to have a vaccine, quite the contrary, and there are already a lot of vaccine sceptics here...

BBC Live feed today stated that two more London area's are to have surge testing due to detection of the South African variant.
SouthWark was added this morning to the two previous area's from a couple of day's ago (Lambeth and Wandsworth).

Later this afternoon, Barnet is now to have surge testing as well, but this single case is not linked to the other cases from the three other area's.
This is a separate cluster, and they are still trying to find any others that may be connected to it.

I'm sure i've read bits on both the BBC and the Guardian, that state that the vaccines are effective against the variants, and not as effective, like this from the Guardian live feed at 15.50pm UK time :

Brazil’s P1 coronavirus variant, behind a deadly Covid-19 surge in the country that has raised international alarm, is mutating in ways that could make it better able to evade antibodies, according to scientists studying the virus.

Research conducted by the public health institute Fiocruz into the variants circulating in Brazil found mutations in the spike region of the virus that is used to enter and infect cells, Reuters reports.

Those changes, the scientists said, could make the virus more resistant to vaccines – which target the spike protein – with potentially grave implications for the severity of the outbreak in Latin America’s most populous nation.

“We believe it’s another escape mechanism the virus is creating to evade the response of antibodies,” said Felipe Naveca, one of the authors of the study and part of Fiocruz in the Amazon city of Manaus, where the P1 variant is believed to have originated.

Naveca said the changes appeared to be similar to the mutations seen in the even more aggressive South African variant, against which studies have shown some vaccines have substantially reduced efficacy.

“This is particularly worrying because the virus is continuing to accelerate in its evolution,” he added.

Studies have shown the P1 variant to be as much as 2.5 times more contagious than the original coronavirus and more resistant to antibodies.

a reply to: MonkeyBalls2
So....'escape mechanism' which is exactly what Geert Vanden Bossche was saying would happen when we vaccinate DURING a pandemic....mutations will happen.....and so it is....

Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: angelchemuel

With so many people infected, the probabilities were huge it would happen eventually...

Unfortunately, We can add Smethwick in the West Midlands to the surge testing, they've found a SA Variant case there too.

From BBC Live Feed :

We can add Harrow and Hillingdon to the four previous boroughs in London undergoing surge testing for the SA Variant.

In Total 6 Boroughs in London, and Smethwick in the West Midlands.


New variant News :

There was a page explaining the 'Indian' variant on Guardian or BBC, but it seems to have vanished. It was in the live feed of one of the sites...

This is from The Indian Express That give some info about the B.1.617 variant, as it is being called.
(Bolding mine for readability)

What is the B.1.617?

The B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV-2 carries two mutations, E484Q and L452R. Both are separately found in many other coronavirus variants, but they have been reported together for the first time in India.

The two mutations are found in the virus’s spike protein. The spike protein helps the virus to bind itself to the human cell’s receptors and gain entry into a host cell.

The E484Q mutation is similar to E484K, a mutation found in the United Kingdom (lineage B.1.1.7) and South Africa (B.1.351) variants of the coronavirus.

The L452R mutation has been found in fast spreading variants in California (B.1.427 and B.1.429). It can increase the binding power of spike proteins with ACE2 receptors on human cells, making it more transmissible. L452R can also potentially enhance viral replication.

Together, E484Q and L452R are more infectious, and can evade antibodies.

Where has the B.1.617 been found?

There is limited data. It was first reported from Maharashtra. In January, 19 samples from various districts were sequenced, and B.1.617 was found in four. In February, 234 samples were sequenced from 18 districts, and 151 samples — from at least 16 districts — had this variant. And in March, as many as 65 of 94 samples had it.

So far, Amravati, Nagpur, Akola, Wardha, Pune, Thane, Aurangabad, and Chandrapur districts have presented strong evidence of the presence of B.1.617. Fewer samples were sequenced in other districts, and the variant was found in some. Sequencing is pending for more samples.

Is this variant more virulent?

There is no evidence so far. Most patients can do with home isolation, although clinical experience needs to be combined with genome sequencing data to generate scientific evidence. Clinical anecdotes from doctors suggests the variant spreads faster, is more infectious, can infect entire families, but is less virulent and doesn’t cause dramatically more hospitalisations.

“Most patients are asymptomatic and that is a good indication. But in absolute numbers so many cases have put a burden on health infrastructure,” said Dr Shashank Joshi, an expert on the Maharashtra Covid Task Force.
...

Can the variant evade vaccines?

Again, the data are limited. Some people have indeed been infected after the first dose, but there is no data on whether their samples were sent for genome sequencing.

“We know that the South African variant is more capable of escaping immune response. We know that UK variant is the most transmissible. But we know nothing about B.1.617 so far, because we are not putting together data to draw conclusions,” Dr Kang said.

Dr Menon underlined that while vaccines are not expected to prevent infection, they certainly prevent severe disease and death. “We expect that this will remain true even with the new variant. The only medium- to long-term solution to deal with Covid-19 is for people to get vaccinated.”

I think this may be the Guardian Article from Yesterday.
"‘A tsunami of cases’: desperation as Covid second wave batters India"

Forbes Article from 3 days ago, about the 'Indian Variant' B.1.617 being detected in California.
6 cases detected, as per the article, well worth the read.
Some good pictures and diagrams.

edit : Another Forbes Article on the 'Oregon Variant of the British Strain'
Seems interesting, Will read in a bit...

The Forbes dude, Mr William A. Haseltine, seem like a good guy to follow for updates on the variants.

This is his latest post at Forb es titled "New Tanzanian Variant Detected In Angola From An Entirely New Branch Of SARS-CoV-2"

Link to his list of articles at Forbes for future reference.

Direct link to the MedRxiv article about it.

"77 cases of the 'Indian Variant' B.1.617 detected in the UK up to 14th April"

From The Guardian

Sucks to be Humans right now...

a reply to: MonkeyBalls2

From that article:

Prof Christina Pagel, director of the Clinical Operational Research Unit at University College London and a member of the Independent Sage group of experts, said the discovery of the variant in the UK was worrying...

...“We don’t know yet whether it can escape existing vaccines but it has several concerning mutations,” she told the Guardian. “It is ridiculous that India is not on the travel red list yet – or many other countries for that matter – when India is seeing 200,000 new cases every day at the moment.”

That is everything imo that we need to know about the chances of a 4th wave hitting the UK. There's no chance involved - it's a certainty, so long as the boarders stay so open.

We have variants that will likely be resistant to the current vaccines relatively free to enter the country, while at the same time lockdown is eased and streets, bars and shops are crowded with queues around the block. It's so obviously a perfect storm that you have to once again question the possible presence of a hidden agenda of heard immunity.

Surely even Bojo and his advisors aren't so dumb to not see this coming.

a reply to: McGinty

But the 'variants' are the perfect excuse to shut down again.
I predict we (as in those vaccinated) are going to be hospitalised this winter, I'd happily place a bet on it.
We think last year was bad enough.....we ain't seen nothing yet......keeps hitting my gut.

Rainbows
Jane

a reply to: McGinty

Maybe Boris doesn't want his trip to India cancelled ?
There's bound to be Weapons sales and all that, just see if India suddenly gets on the Red list when he get's back, that will say it all.

I expect he's possibly bricking it for once, he won't want to get it again