Denmark is sequencing all coronavirus samples and has an alarming view of the U.K. variant

[Wicked Blue]

Washington Post
By Michael Birnbaum and Martin Selsoe Sorensen
Jan. 22, 2021

Like a speeding car whose brake lines have been cut, the coronavirus variant first spotted in Britain is spreading at an alarming rate and isn’t responding to established ways of slowing the pandemic, according to Danish scientists who have one of the world’s best views into the new, more contagious strain.

Cases involving the variant are increasing 70 percent a week in Denmark, despite a strict lockdown, according to Denmark’s State Serum Institute, a government agency that tracks diseases and advises health policy.

“We’re losing some of the tools that we have to control the epidemic,” said Tyra Grove Krause, scientific director of the institute, which has begun sequencing every positive coronavirus test to check for mutations. By contrast, the United States is sequencing 0.3 percent of cases, ranking it 43rd in the world and leaving it largely blind to the variant’s spread.

***

Danish public health officials say that if it weren’t for their extensive monitoring, they would be feeling a false sense of confidence right now. Overall, new daily confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Denmark have been dropping for a month.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/uk-variant-covid-denmark/2021/01/22/ddfaf420-5453-11eb-acc5-92d2819a1ccb_story.html

[SheltieLover]

1. So masks aren't working?

Six feet of distancing was never realistic, imo. I think it was an MIT researcher who has studied how far & wide droplets & aerosols travel. 27 feet.

[Hugin]

2. Maybe it survives longer on surfaces.

Who knows.

A new variant, new rules.

[SheltieLover]

5. Maybe

Terrifying!

Meanwhile, idiot repuke TN Gov Lee is trying to force all schools to reopen in person, as dictated from their VIRTUAL meeting!

[appalachiablue]

19. I was just thinking a month ago that there

haven't been any new articles on 'surfaces' for months & months, and the 1st info. that came out wasn't all that solid.

Plastic, metals, paper, currency, god knows what all.

[uponit7771]

3. Yes mask are working at SLOWING spread not eliminating it

[SheltieLover]

6. Ty

Terrifying!

[FakeNoose]

4. N95 masks in combo with face shields DO work

Why aren't we producing more of them at a faster rate?

[SheltieLover]

8. Hoping Joe will get N-95s made with DPA!

Ty!

[GulfCoast66]

18. I was able to get them at Staples office supply.

I guess people don’t think to look there for masks.

[ProfessorGAC]

7. That Was Maskless

Coughs went 8-13 feet, sneezes 18-27.
But, that test was done when not wearing a mask.
The distances fell to around 35% with a cloth mask, and the total mass load to closer to 25% of unmasked.
So, 6' is actually pretty safe, assuming folks are all wearing masks.

[SheltieLover]

9. Ty, Professor!

I just looked at max & made that my norm.

Here in redneck TN there lots of oppositionally defiant children in adult bodies wearing chin diapers & crocheted masks with huge holes in them.

[BlueDawn]

12. I live in Tennessee, too.....

....and you speak the truth. So many people here refuse to wear masks.

It drives me nuts!

[SheltieLover]

13. Surreal, isn't it?

Like oppositionally defiant children.

[BlueDawn]

16. It really is surreal.

My sister and I discuss this a lot. We are always flummoxed by the stupidity of people who refuse to wear a mask.

We even have family members who voted for Trump who think the virus is “no worse than the flu.” You cannot reason with them. They think wearing masks is ridiculous, a ploy by left-leaning liberals to disrupt their lives. You end up wanting to beat your head against a wall.

I am sorry you have to deal with it, too.

[SheltieLover]

25. Which area of state are you in if I may ask?

Memphis burbs here.

You sure nailed it. I hear same things.

Sorry you are having to endure the stupid, too.

[BlueDawn]

26. I am on the opposite side of the state, near Knoxville.

My husband’s parents lived right below Memphis in Hernando, Mississippi, and we visited them many times and would take our kids to the Memphis Zoo often. Great BBQ in Memphis!

[japple]

22. Here in GA too. Of course I live in the 14th Cong. Dist.--that of Machine Gun Marjorie

Taylor Greene, who (I hope) will probably be fined at some point for not wearing a mask in Congress.

[FreeState]

10. With the previous variant correct?

The mutated variant has not had any distance studies that I can find.

[ProfessorGAC]

11. It Wasn't About The Virus

It was about both particulate or total air mass flow.
It was a fluid dynamics experiment, not specific to any particular contaminant.
But, even viruses have to obey the laws of physics and mass transfer.

[Girard442]

14. What *is* specific to viruses is how long they stay viable in droplets.

Depends on the virus. Measles, for instance, is especially durable.

Not hard to imagine that different variants of COVID-19 would have differing survival times.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. That Wasn't The Topic

I don't disagree, but the discussion was about the distancing needs due to distance of expulsions.
That said, despite their miniscule dimensions, viruses still adhere to gravity.
They all ultimately fall to the ground.
And, those chemical structures are fairly friable, because some protein bonds are very low energy.
Relatively modest frictional forces can actually break molecular bonds. That's not uncommon in very high molecular weight species.
Even polymers are friable, which is why most of them need to be crosslinked. Crosslinking increase tensile strength and elasticity, so the forces is absorbed between the chains, rather than the chain fracturing.
Now, that's not the case for things like polyethylene, because the monomer is so small that the bond energy doesn't get "diluted" along the chain.
But, proteins can be pretty fragile.
All that, to say that viruses on the ground are a tiny concern compared to all the other transmission routes.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

20. Now you have me thinking about the aerodynamics of a coronavirus.

Can it float in the wind like a milkweed seed? If so, how long can it 'survive' outside a droplet?

[ProfessorGAC]

23. Definitely Yes

Remember the surface to mass ratio of something tiny.
Think spores!
Not quite milkweed (or dandelion seeds) because those have the evolutionary advantage of extensions with high surface area and very little mass. The feather vs. a BB. Weigh about the same. One falls at g, the other floats.
Same thing here.
I'm hesitant to make too much of this, because if viruses were this aerodynamically active, nobody would ever escape the cold or flu. I think wearing masks and keeping a reasonable distance is an expectation that all can fulfill.
Since as a whole country, we're not doing that great a job at these two, worrying about more distance and virus hang time doesn't seem useful
Viability is tricky, though.
How hot is it, how much light, how much of the light is uV, is the virus encapsulated in mucuous or exposed to oxygen (although the lipid sheath is meant to protect the protein from oxidation), is there lipase in spittle (a good thing), etc.
Is it viable in air for a long time? Maybe.
There are lots of maybes about this stuff.

[denbot]

15. Fuck..

Just fuck..

[Baclava]

21. Just waiting for the bombshell that current vaccines are less effective against new variants

[progree]

24. In the U.K. itself, daily new cases, 7 day moving average down 30%

over the last 10 days, from the January 11 peak to the latest (January 21), so severe lockdowns do work.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/europe/united-kingdom-coronavirus-cases.html

I read somewhere several days ago that more than half of the new samples in the UK are the scary UK variant B.1.1.7 or something like that.