New COVID-19 variant spreads to dozens of countries
Source: National Public Radio
The coronavirus variant that was first spotted last month in the U.K. has now spread to dozens of countries,
Researchers say the new variant -- dubbed B.1.1.7 -- probably originated in the South East region of England in September, before being detected there in November. According to a new report from Imperial College London, Britain's November lockdown did little to curb its spread, which was most prevalent in young people under 20 years old. The World Health Organization says the new variant is responsible for more than half of new infections in the U.K.
The variant is now in dozens of countries, including the United States, where it's been confirmed to have infected people in Colorado, California and Florida. Europe is riddled with the variant, which has been reported in Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. It has also been detected in Asia, Australia, the Middle East and South America.
The good news is that the new variant doesn't appear to be more deadly. But it is much more contagious -- researchers are still trying to determine exactly how much more, but many have estimated it could be 50 percent more transmissible than the original strain. That may be because it leads to an increased viral load inside a person's nose or respiratory tract -- and so it gets dispersed more easily when people talk or cough. Another theory is that the new variant binds to human cells more easily.
Read more: https://www.mprnews.org/story/2021/01/02/npr-new-covid-19-variant-spreads-to-dozens-of-countries
Ughh. Key quotes from above:
"The World Health Organization says the new variant is responsible for more than half of new infections in the U.K."
"Britain's November lockdown did little to curb its spread"
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The U.K. now has a higher daily new cases per capita than the U.S. 69 vs. 59 per 100K population.
Color-coded map of the countries of the world -- U.S. and U.K. are among a handful of "burgundy" countries (the worst) in average daily new cases per capita. Hover your mouse over a country to see its average new cases and average new cases per 100k and 14 day trend.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-maps.html
Followed by a table.
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U.K. daily new cases up 91% in 14 days (7 day average on Jan 1 vs. 7 day average on December 18).
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/europe/united-kingdom-coronavirus-cases.html
Warpy
(111,243 posts)so of course it's spreading everywhere else, at least in countries too chickenshit to enact air travel bans except for cargo. That wouldn't have stopped it completely. but it would have slowed it down.
We were never going to stop any of this, it had started to spread around the world before China discovered it, but we could have slowed it down a lot.
Airborne Virus, nope. Slowed it down, Yes - that could have occured. Will be all better in a year - Nope. Is this state of being permanent - Probably until 2025, if not later vaccine or not.
Warpy
(111,243 posts)Getting the Republicans out of the Executive Branch will certainly help, but I sincerely doubt Biden is going to get the support he needs to reverse those ruinous tax cuts and that means Uncle Sam isn't going to have the money to do much about it.
Canoe52
(2,948 posts)or both!
Whotheone
(20 posts)in spite of the world being aware of the danger. Makes you wonder how many people haven't learned anything from this crisis.
progree
(10,901 posts)They are on Pacific time, so as I post this its 206 am Saturday night/Sunday morning their time, so not too crowded, but 3 hours ago it was pretty crowded.