First case of highly infectious coronavirus variant detected in Colorado

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Colorado officials on Tuesday reported the first known case in the United States of a person infected with the mutation-laden coronavirus variant that has been circulating rapidly across much of the United Kingdom and has led to a lockdown of much of southern England. The case involves a male in his 20s who is currently in isolation in Elbert County and has no travel history, according to a tweet from the office of Gov. Jared Polis. “The individual has no close contacts identified so far but public health officials are working to identify other potential cases and contacts through thorough contact tracing interviews,” the tweet said.

Researchers have now detected the more transmissible variant in viral samples in at least 17 countries outside the United Kingdom, including as far away as Australia and South Korea, as of Tuesday afternoon. Officials in Canada had previously said they identified two cases, the first in North America. In almost all instances. these cases have been in people who traveled from the United Kingdom, and there is no sign so far that the variant is spreading rapidly in these other countries, including the United States.

While the variant appears to spread more easily, it does not make people sicker or more likely to die, scientists in the United Kingdom reported Tuesday. Nor is there any sign that people who were infected months ago with the coronavirus are more likely to be reinfected if exposed to the variant, according to the report, from Public Health England, a government agency. Scientists also believe these mutations will not allow the virus to escape the immune response incited by vaccines. But it does appear to be more transmissible.

The appearance of the variant in the United States is not a surprise; officials have been signaling since last week that it was likely already present, but simply undetected. “I’m not surprised,” Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Tuesday. “I think we have to keep an eye on it, and we have to take it seriously. We obviously take any kind of mutation that might have a functional significance seriously. But I don’t think we know enough about it to make any definitive statements, except to follow it carefully and study it carefully.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/coronavirus-variant-colorado-us/2020/12/29/8e6379fc-4a01-11eb-a9f4-0e668b9772ba_story.html

[SunSeeker]

1. It may not be more lethal, but more infections mean more deaths.

Covid is all about the math. So in that sense, this variant is more deadly.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

2. fuck.

dammit,shit,fuck you covid.

[SunSeeker]

5. Yup, and he picked it up in his town, he hadn't traveled to the UK or anywhere else.

Last edited Tue Dec 29, 2020, 08:56 PM - Edit history (1)

So this means we have community spread.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

9. Community spread

Yeah,scary isn't it? I caught mycoplasma incognitus because I happened to inhale the wrong air at the wrong time. I was horrifically sick from it .

[SunSeeker]

10. Yup, and if it's in CO, it's in CA and NY for sure.

If only people would wear masks!

[intrepidity]

3. I'm curious about the mechanism that increases transmissability

If anyone has a link, please share.

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Found this

There was this interesting speculation, given this variant had something like 14 - 17 changes that happened to the spike proteins, which is considered a bit extreme when it comes to typical rates of mutation (supposedly 1 - 2 changes per month) -

What evolutionary processes or selective pressures might have given rise to lineage B.1.1.7?

High rates of mutation accumulation over short time periods have been reported previously in studies of immunodeficient or immunosuppressed patients who are chronically infected with SARS-CoV-2 (Choi et al. 2020; Avanzato et al. 2020; Kemp et al. 2020). These infections exhibit detectable SARS-CoV-2 RNA for 2-4 months or longer (although there are also reports of long infections in some immunocompetent individuals). The patients are treated with convalescent plasma (sometimes more than once) and usually also with the drug remdesivir. Virus genome sequencing of these infections reveals unusually large numbers of nucleotide changes and deletion mutations and often high ratios of non-synonymous to synonymous changes. Convalescent plasma is often given when patient viral loads are high, and Kemp et al. (2020) report that intra-patient virus genetic diversity increased after plasma treatment was given.

Under such circumstances, the evolutionary dynamics of and selective pressures upon the intra-patient virus population are expected to be very different to those experienced in typical infection. First, selection from natural immune responses in immune-deficient/suppressed patients will be weak or absent. Second, the selection arising from antibody therapy may be strong due to high antibody concentrations. Third, if antibody therapy is administered after many weeks of chronic infection, the virus population may be unusually large and genetically diverse at the time that antibody-mediated selective pressure is applied, creating suitable circumstances for the rapid fixation of multiple virus genetic changes through direct selection and genetic hitchhiking.

These considerations lead us to hypothesise that the unusual genetic divergence of lineage B.1.1.7 may have resulted, at least in part, from virus evolution with a chronically-infected individual. Although such infections are rare, and onward transmission from them presumably even rarer, they are not improbable given the ongoing large number of new infections.

Although we speculate here that chronic infection played a role in the origins of the B.1.1.7 variant, this remains a hypothesis and we cannot yet infer the precise nature of this event.


https://virological.org/t/preliminary-genomic-characterisation-of-an-emergent-sars-cov-2-lineage-in-the-uk-defined-by-a-novel-set-of-spike-mutations/563

If I interpret the above hypothesis correctly, then the kind of freaky mutation that they found might have been triggered in someone who was already immuno-compromised and chronically ill with a normal variant of COVID-19, and over time, after being given some of the newer standard treatments including remdesivir and convalescent plasma, those treatments triggered the virus to reconfigure and mutate in unusual and excessive ways. Meaning that whatever versions survived the changes, were found to be able to reproduce faster because they were better able to latch onto the COVID-19 preferred ACE-2 landing sites (usually found in the nasal passages and lungs, but also on the kidneys and in the digestive system).

And once they find a landing site, get attached, and can hang on long enough, then they can get to the business of replicating much more efficiently then free-floating members that may have a harder time finding and then attaching to their "landing zones".

I.e., it's as if the new variant created a stronger "magnet" at the end of the spike, that can help get it to the preferred spots in the body, and hold them there long enough to replicate.

The point of the mRNA vaccines is to trigger the body to mutate some cells so that they grow some "artificial spikes" that mimic a COVID-19 spike, and then that triggers the body to create antibodies that will basically attach to real COVID-19 spikes if any are encountered, and that essentially "demagnetizes" (neutralizes) them so they can't attach.

[intrepidity]

6. So, "immune escape" as opposed to ex vivo,

such as, ability to 'survive' on environmental surfaces longer, or ability to travel longer in aerosols, that sort of thing.

If so, then technically they may not be correct in saying it doesn't affect severity of disease. I suspect that what is actually happening, is asymptomatic positives are now feeling symptoms with this new variant.

WAG caveat applies.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. When I first started searching, first thing I found was a paper on a variant

that did have higher ex vivo survivability and spread but then it is apparently a different mutated form from the one being highlighted supposedly originating in the UK and I don't know how much of this one is out in the population - https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6523/1464

[intrepidity]

14. Interesting, because D614G supposedly has become the dominant

variant. Thanks for the link, will read soon.

[Chemisse]

8. It was probably found because the U.S. started looking.

Who knows how long it may have been here? If we don't do regular analysis, we don't know.

[JI7]

11. First detected but I'm sure it's been here for a while and widely spread

[rocktivity]

12. Well, Golllllllllllly and surprise surprise surprise!

Between being lax about travel restrictions and mass testing; not properly quarantining the infected and contagious; and topping it off with a healthcare infrastructure you could knock over with a feather, the virus was practically GIVEN an engraved invitation to mutate!




rocktivity

[progree]

13. In the UK it is rapidly spreading, propelling the U.K. to the top few new Cov cases per capita

Last edited Wed Dec 30, 2020, 12:13 AM - Edit history (1)

UK records its highest number of new Covid infections, with 53,135 cases, Source: The Guardian, 12/29/20.

The UK has recorded a dramatic jump to more than 53,000 Covid-19 cases – its biggest ever daily case count, one day after it crossed 40,000 cases for the first time.

... The new UK variant, christened B117, was discovered during an investigation into why coronavirus cases in Kent continued to rise during the November lockdown.

Latest Breaking News: https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142655800

Guardian article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/29/uk-records-its-highest-number-of-new-covid-infections-with-53135-cases