Batch of homegrown coronavirus mutations seen in US

[nitpicker]

Source: CNN

Batch of homegrown coronavirus mutations seen in US

By Maggie Fox, CNN

Updated 9:50 PM ET, Sun February 14, 2021

(CNN)Researchers said Sunday they have identified a batch of similar troubling mutations in coronavirus samples circulating in the United States. They've not only drawn attention to them; they've come up with a better shorthand for referring to them. They've named them after birds.
(snip)

The genetic stretch that is mutated, or changed, is called 677. The various changes are so similar that the researchers think evolution favors these particular variants. And it's in a troubling place, said Vaughn Cooper, director of the Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, who worked on the study. "This stretch of Spike is important because of its proximity to a region key for virulence," Cooper told CNN via email.
(snip)

They've identified seven similar mutations at 677 -- each one appearing to have arisen independently. They named them after birds to make it easier to identify them.

One, called Robin 1, has turned up in more than 30 US states, predominating in the Midwest, they said. A second "first appeared from a Oct 6, 2020 sample from Alabama and is named 'Robin 2' owing to its similarity to the parental Robin 1 sub-lineage," they wrote. It's mainly seen in the Southeast. One called Pelican was first seen in a sample from Oregon, and has since turned up in 12 other states as well as Australia, Denmark, Sweden and India.
(snip)


Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/14/health/coronavirus-mutations-birds-us/index.html#:~:text=(CNN)%20Researchers%20said%20Sunday%20they,circulating%20in%20the%20United%20States.&text=The%20genetic%20stretch%20that%20is,evolution%20favors%20these%20particular%20variants.

[Botany]

1. This should be totally expected. All living things can and will mutate aka have "variants" from ...

... one generation to the next and since viruses have new generations quickly then seeing
new mutations/variants should not be a surprise.

The important questions should be:

1) Will the new strains be immune to the vaccines now in use?

2) Will we be able to produce new vaccines to keep up with the mutations?

3) Will the new strains be more contagious and or lethal?

*******
And never forget that President Obama had left the people, the protocols, and the material in place that
would have stopped this international viral nightmare from happening. See Ebola .... 2 Americans died from
that.

[Xipe Totec]

3. Expected, when the virus is allowed to replicate unimpeded.

If you stop it from spreading, you stop it from mutating.

[Botany]

12. "If you stop it from spreading, you stop it from mutating."

That is easier said then done. We still have millions of Americans who refuse to wear a
mask or wear it right because it violates their "free dumbs." I was just over in rural
Western MD and the # of Trump voting dumb fucks who were going w/out masks was
staggering.

[Irish_Dem]

18. These people are putting us all at risk.

We will keep getting mutations, some of which may cause real problems.

[C Moon]

31. What's worse is that we will have millions more

refusing to wear masks after they are vaccinated.

[Botany]

38. And the virus might not only travel around America but world wide too.

We might be dealing with what I am afraid to write about.

[wnylib]

16. Absolutely true. We can thank the anti maskers

for the mutations.

[BlueStater]

24. And thank Trump as well, since he encouraged this dangerous stupidity.

🤬

[wnylib]

36. I do not want innocent people

to get reinfected from the new strains. But, if reinfection is possible, then I very much hope that Traitor Trump gets it again, without the special care he got in the WH. Same for the rest of theTraitor Party members. No one deserves it more.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. I just saw this morning that Ebola is back

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142695713

[Irish_Dem]

19. I guess we didn't have enough excitement this year and last.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. Yeah the spillover is just awful...

[2naSalit]

2. Perhaps we are entering...

A great depopulating event cycle where viruses are what will decrease human population over a period of time. Probably until people wise up about them and keeping safe. I wonder how many that will be and how long it will take.

[bucolic_frolic]

5. My arm is going to be so sore from booster shots!

and I'm thinking along the same lines. Could be 2-3 years before we know a lot more. Could be 5-6 before the genie goes back in the bottle. Or could be endless mutations into something less - or more - virulent.

[2naSalit]

7. Yeah...

It's going to require a shift in human behavior and that could take a long time. I will get the vaccine(s) when needed, assuming there will be boosters. Looks like we have the viruses to deal with along with climate crises so we have a lot to watch out for in the near and distant future.

[Delphinus]

35. And,

the climate crisis is sure to be playing a part in all of this.

[NurseJackie]

11. I fear that we are living through the opening scenes of a contagion horror movie...

... that will get worse and worse throughout this decade.

[bucolic_frolic]

14. It's the Northern Exposure post-apocalypse episode come to life

Conservatives were practicing cancel culture against that show for sure. Anything they didn't want to see or hear.

[2naSalit]

15. You're probably right about that.

Too many are not willing to understand the truth. They think something other than the facts will save them.

[wnylib]

17. The 1918 flu pandemic had at least 3 waves and

lasted for 2 years before it started to fade away. We couldn't trace mutations of it then like we can today, but we do know that the later 1957-1958 pandemic was a descendant mutation - 40 years after the original. I had the 1958 version when I was a child.

ON EDIT: Afterthought - Wonder if that's how I developed a bird allergy?

[paleotn]

22. Massive expansion of humans into formerly unpopulated areas....

coupled with climate change is a recipe for disaster experts have been warning about for 40+ years. So far good science and dumb luck has come between us and the devil. As bad as Covid-19 is, we should thank our personal gods every day that it's not like MERS. What's next? Who knows?

[bucolic_frolic]

4. At least scientists are testing and identifying them

[Squinch]

6. This is one of the great evils of the deniers. If we restrain it's spread, we restrain it's

mutation. The more mutations, the more chances for it to develop a mutation that resists vaccination and our efforts to treat it.

[2naSalit]

10. +1

Isn't that what has happened with TB? I know it's bacterial, yet partially treatable with vaccine, but several years back there was a lot of news about it mutating into drug resistant varieties. It is transmissible through similar vectors so it works, sort of, as an example.

[Barb arian]

8. Earth is Getting Serious

It's observed how destructive the homo sapiens virus has been, and is thus creating more antibodies!

[niyad]

13. Welcome to our DU family. I think that you may be quite correct.

[Barb arian]

29. Damn Right I'm Correct

I was molested by my father from the ages of 6-13. I've also been raped twice as an adult. Like Gaia Herself, I know an invasive organism when I see it!

[Irish_Dem]

21. Mother Earth is not going to let us destroy her.

Smart lady.

[niyad]

33. She can dispatch the plague that is humanity very efficiently.

[Irish_Dem]

34. Oh yes, between sending us plagues, heat, cold, fires, quakes, etc.

She will keep knocking us around until we behave.
Or else as you indicate.

[riversedge]

23. K

[DeminPennswoods]

25. In our Sunday paper there was an interesting story

about a 73 yr old cancer patient who ultimately died from covid19. Because his immune system was suppressed the virus had a chance to mutate at will. The hospital sequenced the virus as they were fighting it in the patient and noticed how fast it mutated and how it also produced what are now known as the UK and S Afr variants. All the mutations stayed within the patient's own body.

Story was posted on post-gazette.com, but no direct link.

[StarryNite]

26. That's horrifying.

[JudyM]

30. 😮

This thing is alive like a horror movie creature.

[DeminPennswoods]

32. It wasn't meant to be a doomsday scenario, just

interesting and only applicable to people with seriously suppressed immune systems. Because of the cancer treatments, this patient's immune system was completely surpressed. He had no defense whatsoever against the virus although he did get convalescent plasma, iirc, at some point.

All I have read and heard is that viruses mutate, it's not unique to this particular corona virus. And so far, ALL of the vaccines have been effective at limiting the severity of the covid19, hospitalizations and death. Take heart, we will get through this.

[JudyM]

37. Right, I get the specificity of this case, but multiple mutations surprised me.

I don’t know a lot about the genetics of viruses, and never read about ongoing sequencing of virus in a patient, so it’s all news. I know we’ll get through it, eventually... at least the right people are in charge now!

I’d love to see research on the political distribution of Covid mortalities in the US.

[BobTheSubgenius]

27. Here's a thought for Bizarro World.

Is it possible that there will be those who think they prefer to catch these variants, because they arose in the USA?

Little would surprise me on any front these days.

[Warpy]

28. RNA viruses like coronavirus tend to mutate rapidly

so this is kind of a "well, duh" story. Mutations are useful for tracking the origin of a particular strain. That new strains are developing in the US comes as absolutely no surprise, since so little was done by our government to encourage people to stop spreading it.