South Africa Finds New Variant Of COVID-19 With 'Constellation Of Mutations'

[riversedge]

Source: huff post





The United Kingdom temporarily barred flights from six African nations amid fears over the new coronavirus strain.

11/25/2021 10:52pm EST


A new variant of the coronavirus has been found in South Africa, troubling scientists who say the strain has a high number of mutations and is likely already sparking a jump in new cases around Johannesburg.

The variant, which is being referred to as the B1.1.529 variant until the World Health Organization decides to assign it a letter of the Greek alphabet, is linked to 22 positive cases in South Africa so far, as well as cases in Hong Kong and Botswana among travelers from the country.


“You can be rest assured that as people move in the next coming weeks, this [variant] will be all over,” Dr. Joe Phaahla, South Africa’s health minister, said at a media briefing on Thursday. “Over the last four or five days, there has been more of an exponential rise [in cases].”

Several variants of COVID-19 have been cause for concern as the virus mutates, including the highly transmissible delta strain. Mutations are a prime fear among health officials, who worry new strains of the coronavirus could bypass the effectiveness of vaccines that have aided the reopening of society and limited severe illness and death among inoculated people................................

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/south-africa-covid-19-variant-mutations_n_61a04a18e4b0451e55057dce

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#NuVariant
It took the Delta variant almost 100 days to become the dominate strain of Covid19 in 90% of all cases. B.1.1.529 has reached that same level in less than 3 weeks.

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[riversedge]

1. #NuVariant Nu is now in Israel

@HealthcareGlob1
#NuVariant Nu is now in Israel

Link to tweet

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[twodogsbarking]

2. Those who don't learn from history

are history.

[Botany]

3. Get vaccinated, ship new doses of vaccines to the areas effected, see if pfizer's pill is ...

... effective treating the disease, enforce vaccine and mask mandates, listen to the scientists,
and ridicule and call out the anti-science bull shit that places like Fox are pushing along with
people like Governors DeSantis, Abbot, and other GOPers who want to spread the disease for
political reasons. Russia and its cut outs are also spreading vaccine and mask misinformation
too.

TFG just had to get rid of Obama's Global Pandemic task force (2017), fire the CDC's epidemiologist
who was on the ground in Wuhan, China in 2018, and pull us out of an international disease task
force called PREDICT in 2019. Much of the world wide suffering, death, and expenses from C-19
goes right back to TFG.

BTW I am they are doing this but we need to see how effectively our current vaccines work against
this new strain.

[oldsoftie]

5. Yes, i'd like to know the effectivness of the current vaccines against this new strain too

THATS really the most important thing

[madville]

10. Reports said that the two Hong Kong cases

Are previously vaccinated with Pfizer and had extremely high viral loads, interesting.

[oldsoftie]

11. Arrrrgghhh. Dont like hearing that

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

4. USA should temporarily ban all international flights NOW.

The spread of Covid is directly proportionate to the percentage of stupid in this country. Once this variant comes to America, the stupids will spread it like wildfire, and there's nothing we can say or do to prevent them from doing so.

Cuz Freedumb!!11!!, dontcha know.

[twodogsbarking]

6. we are getting back to normal.

Normal = Really fucked up.

[IronLionZion]

7. I hope our vaccines are still effective against this variant

because it sounds like it's coming for the unvaccinated even worse than Delta.

[DenaliDemocrat]

8. The Vaccines WILL still have a level of effectiveness

We found mRNA vaccines generated functional memory B cells that increased from 3-6 months post-vaccination, with the majority of these cells cross-binding the Alpha, Beta, and Delta variants. mRNA vaccination further induced antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, and early CD4+ T cell responses correlated with long-term humoral immunity

There will likely be a decrease in recruitment for neutralizing antibodies, but our immune system has many layers.

[Bayard]

9. Here we go again

We're never getting rid of this thing at this rate. When do we hit billions of lives lost? They're going to run out of letters to name the variants.

Glad we both just got our boosters, and hoping they'll be effective against new strains.

[dalton99a]

12. Europe's first reported case of new COVID variant has been discovered in Belgium

https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/26/europe-s-first-reported-case-of-new-covid-variant-has-been-discovered-in-belgium
Omicron: Europe's first reported case of new COVID variant has been discovered in Belgium
By Euronews • Updated: 26/11/2021 - 20:21

Europe's first reported case of a new COVID variant has been discovered in Belgium.

The B.1.1.529 variant, which is causing concern because of its "extremely high" number of mutations, was first detected in South Africa.

Health minister Frank Vandenbroucke said it had now been found in Belgium.

"We have a case that is now confirmed of this variant," he said on Friday. "This is someone who came from abroad, who tested positive on November 22, who was not vaccinated."

The country's chief virologist, Mark Van Ranst, said the variant was detected in "a returning traveller from Egypt".