Tag: Covid-19

One Last ‘Booster’ Thing

I have written several times about the ‘booster’ for Covid….again talk with your medical professional for what is best for you and your family.

When the news first broke about a ‘booster’ my first question was will it be free as well……then I read a story about Pharma and the booster…..

Billions more in profits are at stake for some vaccine makers as the U.S. moves toward dispensing COVID-19 booster shots to shore up Americans’ protection against the virus. How much the manufacturers stand to gain depends on how big the rollout proves to be. US health officials late on Thursday endorsed booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine for all Americans 65 and older—along with tens of millions of younger people who are at higher risk from the coronavirus because of health conditions or their jobs, per the AP. Officials described the move as a first step. Boosters will likely be offered even more broadly in the coming weeks or months, including boosters of vaccines made by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. That, plus continued growth in initial vaccinations, could mean a huge gain in sales and profits for Pfizer and Moderna in particular. “The opportunity quite frankly is reflective of the billions of people around the world who would need a vaccination and a boost,” Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said.

Wall Street is taking notice. The average forecast among analysts for Moderna’s 2022 revenue has jumped 35% since President Joe Biden laid out his booster plan in mid-August. Most of the vaccinations so far in the U.S. have come from Pfizer, which developed its shot with Germany’s BioNTech, and Moderna. They have inoculated about 99 million and 68 million people, respectively. Johnson & Johnson is third with about 14 million people. No one knows yet how many people will get the extra shots. But Morningstar analyst Karen Andersen expects boosters alone to bring in about $26 billion in global sales next year for Pfizer and BioNTech and around $14 billion for Moderna if they are endorsed for nearly all Americans. Those companies also may gain business from people who got other vaccines initially. In Britain, which plans to offer boosters to everyone over 50 and other vulnerable people, an expert panel has recommended that Pfizer’s shot be the primary choice, with Moderna as the alternative.

Andersen expects Moderna, which has no other products on the market, to generate a roughly $13 billion profit next year from all COVID-19 vaccine sales if boosters are broadly authorized. Potential vaccine profits are harder to estimate for Pfizer, but company executives have said they expect their pre-tax adjusted profit margin from the vaccine to be in the “high 20s” as a percentage of revenue. That would translate to a profit of around $7 billion next year just from boosters, based on Andersen’s sales prediction. J&J and Europe’s AstraZeneca have said they don’t intend to profit from their COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic. For Pfizer and Moderna, the boosters could be more profitable than the original doses because they won’t come with the research and development costs the companies incurred to get the vaccines on the market in the first place.

WBB Securities CEO Steve Brozak said the booster shots will represent “almost pure profit” compared with the initial doses. Drugmakers aren’t the only businesses that could see a windfall from delivering boosters. Drugstore chains CVS Health and Walgreens could bring in more than $800 million each in revenue, according to Jeff Jonas, a portfolio manager with Gabelli Funds. Jonas noted that the drugstores may not face competition from mass vaccination clinics this time around, and the chains are diligent about collecting customer contact information. That makes it easy to invite people back for boosters.

All the news about the boosters leads me to believe that corporate media is hawking this as a necessity….after all profit is more important than health care.

Or is the booster thing being hawked by Biden admin as some sort of payback to Pharma for their giving the ‘jabs’ for free to the population?

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Do I Need That Booster?

The question is being asked….and answers are not forthcoming….

There is much being written and reported on the ‘booster thing’…….(my two posts are referenced here)…..

More On The ‘Booster’

Even with the info available the question still remains….do I need the booster?

The word from the FDA is that some may need the vaccine and others may not…..for now.

The Biden administration has been working for weeks on plans for Covid-19 booster shots, as the delta variant drives a new pandemic wave across the country. The debate recently spilled out into the open when two top officials from the Food and Drug Administration stepped down over reported concerns that the decision-making process was being driven by politics instead of science.

Israel is already pushing ahead with booster shots, with most of that country’s population currently eligible for a third shot, based on data that indicates vaccine effectiveness wanes over time. The country is even preparing for the possibility that patients will require a fourth shot. The Biden administration has reportedly been influenced by the data out of Israel and, for a time, it looked as though the US would quickly take the same path. In a speech last month, President Joe Biden laid out a plan for every vaccinated American to receive a booster shot — pending FDA approval.

But recently, there has been pushback from parts of the scientific community, who argue that the case for booster shots is not as clear-cut as it may seem at first.

https://www.vox.com/coronavirus-covid19/22675485/covid-19-vaccine-booster-shot-fda-approval

DO NOT take the social media advice….go see a medical professional and get the advice from them.

Please do not take your advice from some self-serving pastor or some overpaid talk show host….ask someone that has real knowledge not some fake promises of coverage.

Your life depends on proper information.

Not all the info is discouraging on the Covid thing…….

We’re back at gloomy levels, with Johns Hopkins University data showing more than 2,000 Americans are now dying of COVID-19 daily, reports CNN—and in its telling, health experts are fearful of what the combination of our current COVID situation and the start of flu season will bring. But NPR suggests what’s coming may be … not that bad. It reviewed an analysis prepared by researchers who are assisting the CDC, and it’s hopeful.

The COVID-19 Scenario Modeling Hub developed four possible scenarios for what’s coming in the next six months using nine different mathematical models and a group of assumptions (like “kids do get vaccinated” or “no new variant emerges”). If both those conditions—yes to kids, no to a highly contagious new variant—hold, the model looks good, says the Hub’s Justin Lesser: New infections would move in a steadily downward trajectory from about 140,000 a day to 9,000 a day by March, with daily deaths under the 100 mark. Under that scenario, the US would have suffered about 780,000 deaths.

One Harvard epidemiologist throws a little rain on the parade, saying that while he does suspect the pandemic will be “comparatively under control by March,” he says it’s possible we could see some surges before we get there, noting that coronaviruses “usually peak in early January.” Meanwhile, ABC News reports that just three states accounted for about a third of the COVID deaths suffered in the past week: Texas, Alabama, and Georgia

Be Well…..Be Safe….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Covid Out Does The Spanish Flu

Closing Thought–21Sep21

Did you know that in 1918 the pandemic known as the Spanish Flu killed about 675,000 Americans…a bunch huh?

Well Covid has topped that…..

COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic did—approximately 675,000. The US population a century ago was one-third of what it is today, meaning the flu cut a much bigger, more lethal swath through the country. But the COVID-19 crisis is by any measure a colossal tragedy in its own right, especially given the incredible advances in scientific knowledge since then and the failure to take maximum advantage of the vaccines available this time. “Big pockets of American society—and, worse, their leaders—have thrown this away,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan, the AP reports.

COVID’s Death Toll Catches 1918 Flu’s

One model shows another 100,000 people will be killed by January
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Sep 20, 2021 7:15 PM CDT
 
COVID Has Taken as Many Lives as 1918 Flu
 
An employee moves the body of a patient who died of COVID-19 onto a gurney to take to a funeral home van last month in Shreveport, La.   (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
 
 

(Newser) – COVID-19 has now killed about as many Americans as the 1918-19 Spanish flu pandemic did—approximately 675,000. The US population a century ago was one-third of what it is today, meaning the flu cut a much bigger, more lethal swath through the country. But the COVID-19 crisis is by any measure a colossal tragedy in its own right, especially given the incredible advances in scientific knowledge since then and the failure to take maximum advantage of the vaccines available this time. “Big pockets of American society—and, worse, their leaders—have thrown this away,” said Dr. Howard Markel, a medical historian at the University of Michigan, the AP reports.

Like the Spanish flu, the coronavirus may never entirely disappear from our midst. Instead, scientists hope it becomes a mild seasonal bug as human immunity strengthens through vaccination and repeated infection. That could take time. “We hope it will be like getting a cold, but there’s no guarantee,” said Emory University biologist Rustom Antia, who suggests an optimistic scenario in which this could happen over a few years. For now, the pandemic still has the US and other parts of the world firmly in its jaws.

While the delta-fueled surge in infections may have peaked, US deaths are still averaging more than 1,900 a day on average, the highest level since early March, and the country’s overall toll topped 675,000 on Monday, according to the count kept by Johns Hopkins University. Experts believe the real number to be higher. Winter could bring a new surge, with the University of Washington’s influential model projecting an additional 100,000 or so Americans will die of COVID-19 by Jan. 1, which would bring the overall US toll to 776,000.

The 1918-19 influenza pandemic killed 50 million people globally at a time when the world had one-quarter the population it does now. Global deaths from COVID-19 now stand at more than 4.6 million. The Spanish flu’s US death toll is an estimate, given the incomplete records of the era and the poor scientific understanding of what caused the illness. The 675,000 figure comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Before COVID-19, the 1918-19 flu was universally considered the worst pandemic disease in human history. No vaccine existed to slow it, and there were no antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections.

The problem is we are still in the grip of the pandemic and the numbers will just keep growing…..and growing….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

More On The ‘Booster’

Over this past weekend I posted on the statement from the WHO which included my original post on the “booster”……https://lobotero.com/2021/09/12/that-booster-thing-redux/

Now the Lancet, a medical journal, has issued a statement as well….

A new international review of COVID cases reaches a clear recommendation: Hold off on booster shots for the general population. The new paper in the Lancet medical journal is authored by researchers from around the world, including two outgoing FDA scientists, reports the New York Times. They found no evidence that boosters are necessary to prevent serious illness for most people, adding that even if people did receive some benefit, it would be far better to distribute the vaccines in unvaccinated parts of the world. The researchers acknowledged that boosters might be helpful for people with compromised immune systems. They also said their recommendation in regard to the general population could change if a new variant emerges, per STAT News.

For now, however, “current evidence does not … appear to show a need for boosting in the general population, in which efficacy against severe disease remains high,” the scientists write, per CNN. That two of those scientists are with the FDA “amounts to a strikingly direct rebuff to the Biden administration as it lays plans for booster shots,” writes Andrew Joseph at STAT. The pair are resigning in part because they say the White House is getting ahead of scientists on the booster plans, per the Times. The new review in the Lancet raises another objection to boosters: Any reports of side effects, even if rare, would only deepen skepticism about the shots among vaccine resisters. An FDA advisory committee meets on Friday for its own review.

This ‘booster’ thing is still unclear.

The media seems to be on-board with the ‘booster’ thing….they are pushing for the, heavy.

As I have stated many times….please consult a medical professional and do not listen to the garbage passed around by idiots and talk show hosts.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ivermectin Makes You Sterile

Closing Thought–13Sep21

These days the idiot Right is fixated on a horse de-wormer as a ‘cure/vaccine’ for the Covid virus…..it is getting so toxic that QAnon is screaming and threatening people to use the animal drug Ivermectin as a treatmenr for Covid…..

Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory recently launched a protest to demand an ill COVID patient be treated with the controversial livestock drug, Ivermectin.

According to The Chicago Sun Times, QAnon backers targeted the Amita Resurrection Medical Center in Chicago as a small group of conspiracy theorists flooded the medical facility with phone calls while others held an in-person protest.

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/angry-group-of-qanon-believers-demand-patient-be-treated-with-livestock/

One of the headlines I read over the weekend was basically the title of this post…Ivermectin makes men sterile….

A study published in 2011 and widely circulated in September 2021 found that 85% of men treated with ivermectin for a tropical disease known as river blindness were found to be sterile.

Does Ivermectin Cause Sterility in Men?

Would make a good meme for social media but the FDA put the brakes on this ‘conspiracy’….

  • The FDA does not list male sterility as one of the side effects of taking ivermectin. 
  • Scientific studies typically undergo a rigorous peer-review process that assesses the methods and results of a study to ensure that it meets a certain standard of scientific quality. 
  • Ivermectin has not been approved as a treatment against COVID-19.
See the sources for this fact-check
 
I constantly ask just what does someone gain by pushing slimy and dodgey ‘cure’ for Covid?
 
Proponents of ivermectin as a treatment for covid are now in damage-control mode after a series of stories about people overdosing on horse paste and sheep drench from feed stores.

Such luminaries as Joe Rogan, Tucker Carlson, Brett Weinstein and United States Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) stoked demand for the dewormer, only to have the craze blow up in the faces when the ginned-up demand outstripped the pharmaceutical supply and people started self-medicating with horse paste.

The zeal of the ivermectin prophets was self-defeating. The whole point of being an Ivermectin Guy is that you can indulge in antivaxx conspiracy theories while sounding smarter than the Microchip Guys. That’s why they get so mad when you call it “horse paste.”

https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/ivermectin-conspiracy-theories/

I still cannot understand why someone to would take the word of a babbling radio personality over the advice of experts in the field of infectious diseases….instead they listen to the advice of those that are experts in stupid.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That “Booster” Thing–Redux

AS we continue to try and fight the pandemic that is gripping this country and the continuous news reporting on the progress the attempts to save the nation from a total meltdown…..and now the ‘booster’ thing is making its rounds in the MSM….they seem to be pushing the early idea that we all may need a ‘booster’ to prevent onset of illness.

When the idea of a ‘booster’ was floated in the media I tried to inform my readers on just what they idea was all about…

What Is This ‘Booster” Thing?

It appears to be a popular news story these days…..

WHO has not been as thrilled with the idea as the media…..

The World Health Organization is calling for a halt on COVID-19 vaccine boosters until at least the end of September, its head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday, as the gap between vaccinations in wealthy and poor countries widens.

The call for a moratorium is the strongest statement yet from the UN agency at a time when countries deliberate the need for boosters to combat the fast-spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus.

“I understand the concern of all governments to protect their people from the Delta variant. But we cannot accept countries that have already used most of the global supply of vaccines using even more of it,” Tedros added.

High-income countries administered around 50 doses for every 100 people in May, and that number has since doubled, according to WHO. Low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 doses for every 100 people, due to lack of supply.

…

To counter the spread of the Delta variant, some countries have begun to use or started weighing on the need for booster doses even as scientists debate over whether or not extra shots are needed.

“The fact that we are vaccinating healthy adults with a booster dose of COVID-19 vaccines is a short-sighted way of thinking,” said Elin Hoffmann Dahl, infectious diseases medical adviser to Medecins Sans Frontieres’ access campaign.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/who-calls-moratorium-covid-19-vaccine-booster-doses-until-september-end-2021-08-04/

I will get the booster if it is necessary to prevent me from getting the Covid….but before I make my final decision I will do what I do best….research…..something I believe everyone should before they make any medical decision.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

New Biden Covid Response

Yet another press conference and speech about Covid from the president…..

The details of an aggressive new push by the White House on COVID are emerging, with new rules affecting federal employees, larger businesses, and health care workers.

  • Federal workers: Biden will sign an executive order requiring all of the estimated 2.1 million federal employees to get their shots, reports CNN. The rule also applies to the millions of contractors who work with the government. The only exceptions will be for those with disabilities or who decline for religious reasons.
  • Health workers: The White House also will require that all staff at health facilities that receive federal funding be vaccinated, reports Politico. That would include hospitals that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding. In all, the White House estimates this rule will affect 50,000 facilities.
  • Larger businesses: All businesses with more than 100 employees will have to require vaccinations or weekly tests of their workers, reports the Washington Post. This policy would affect an estimated 80 million workers, or two-thirds of the nation’s workforce.
  • Big change: No longer will federal employees be able to skip the shot by agreeing to get tested regularly. Over the summer, the White House required vaccinations or testing. That substitute is no longer an option, at least for federal employees, notes the Wall Street Journal.
  • A deadline: Federal workers will have about 75 days to get vaccinated. If they don’t, disciplinary procedures get rolling that could result in the employee being fired.
  • A model: “The expectation is if you want to work in the federal government or want to be a contractor, you need to be vaccinated,” said press secretary Jen Psaki. “We would like to be a model to what we think other businesses and organizations should do around the country.”

Like I said….yet another plan…..but will it start a new rush to be vaccinated?

I do not believe so…if anything it may make the divisions in society even more pronounced….

I give Biden an “A” for effort….but that is the best I can do right now.

I hope the American prove me wrong….but I am not holding my breath.

To those unvaccinated people out there I want to say…..’can’t fix stupid’!

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

That ‘Old Time Religion’

I usually do not post much on religion for to me it is a personal thing and should stay with the person….but here I will make an exception because of all the religious bullshit around this Covid thing and a lot of false and misleading info is coming out of them mouths of religious MORONS….it is pathetic and it is not helping.

But why do they choose stupid over knowledge?

From Darwin to COVID the church has been wrong. It’s really about fear among the Christian faithful when they turn away from science. Even scientific theory is dismissed out of hand by the church because of a fear that somehow science will prove that God does not exist. As the pandemic spreads from one church to another and global warming continues to be ignored by the evangelical movement, it is clear that practitioners of the current Christian faith have not evolved from their ancestors who condemned Galileo and Darwin.

This is why it has been so difficult to get evangelicals to accept things proven by the scientific community. You have probably noticed that many Republicans still will not confirm that climate change is even a thing. They almost certainly know better but are spineless, too afraid to alienate their hardcore Christian constituency, despite the clear ignorance behind the evangelical understanding of the climate crisis.

https://www.salon.com/2021/08/28/evangelicals-science-and-the-vaccine-refusal-is-built-on-deep-seated-fear/

What are white evangelical Repubs afraid of?

The belief that God controls everything that happens in the world is a core tenet of evangelicalism — 84 percent of white evangelicals agreed with this statement in PRRI polling from 2011, while far fewer nonwhite, non-evangelical Christians shared this belief. The same poll also showed that white evangelicals were more likely than any other Christian group to believe that God would punish nations for the sins of some of its citizens and that natural disasters were a sign from God. What’s more, other research from the Journal of Psychology and Theology has found that some evangelical Christians rationalize illnesses like cancer as God’s will.

Why Some White Evangelical Republicans Are So Opposed To The COVID-19 Vaccine

My question is…if God controls everything why does he not protect us from bullets or hunger or homelessness?

Somewhere in the myths I believe there is something written about ‘bearing false witness’ and these bigots charlatans break that rule on almost every occasion.

In 1980 when Reagan was running for the presidency I aid that it was a big mistake to allow the religious chattering class to become part of the campaign….good to see I have not lost my touch.

I am starting to have NO compassion for these idiots….for if you take health advice from a pastor then maybe God is deciding who lives and dies…..and you could be of the short end of that stick.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Meet Mu!

First we had the Covid-19 virus and then it morphed into the Delta variant and now the new variant is called Mu….

This week the World Health Organization named a new “variant of interest” of the coronavirus, called the Mu variant. It was first found in Colombia in January 2021, and has been found in about 39 countries so far.

Mu has changes, called mutations, which mean it might be able to evade some of the protection we get from COVID vaccines.

But one reassuring element is that, despite being around since January 2021, it doesn’t seem to be outcompeting Delta, the dominant variant across most of the world.

If Mu was truly a really bad variant, we would have expected to have started to see indications of this, and we haven’t yet.

This week the World Health Organization named a new “variant of interest” of the coronavirus, called the Mu variant. It was first found in Colombia in January 2021, and has been found in about 39 countries so far.

Mu has changes, called mutations, which mean it might be able to evade some of the protection we get from COVID vaccines.

But one reassuring element is that, despite being around since January 2021, it doesn’t seem to be outcompeting Delta, the dominant variant across most of the world.

If Mu was truly a really bad variant, we would have expected to have started to see indications of this, and we haven’t yet.

What’s a variant of interest?

An impressive element of our COVID response has been frequent genomic sequencing, which we haven’t done before on this scale. This tracks and maps the evolution of the virus in real time, as it adapts and mutates.

Some mutations will be detrimental to the virus, but some will be beneficial, allowing it to spread better, escape the protection offered by vaccines or even evade COVID tests.

If there are changes to the virus that mean it looks like it has the potential to do more harm, then we might designate it a “variant of interest”.

Mu has mutations that might confer some of these properties, but evidence is still emerging.

The four other variants of interest are Eta, Iota, Kappa and Lambda.

https://theconversation.com/whats-the-mu-variant-and-will-we-keep-seeing-more-concerning-variants-167183

There are many question that sane people have about the rise of a new health threat…..here are some questions and answers…

A coronavirus variant known as “mu” or “B.1.621” was designated by the World Health Organization as a “variant of interest” earlier this week and will be monitored by the global health body as cases continue to emerge across parts of the world. It is the fifth variant of interest currently being monitored by the WHO.

Q: Where was it first detected and where is it now?

A: The variant was first detected in Colombia in January 2021, where cases continue to rise. It has since been identified in more than 39 countries, according to the WHO, among them the United States, South Korea, Japan, Ecuador, Canada and parts of Europe.

Q: How widespread is mu in the United States?

A: About 2,000 mu cases have been identified in the United States, so far, according to the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID), the largest database of novel coronavirus genome sequences in the world. Most cases have been recorded in California, Florida, Texas and New York among others.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/heres-what-we-know-about-the-mu-variant/

If you are concerned then learn all you can about this variant and adjust your life to stay safe and well….

Watch This Blog!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

What Is This ‘Booster” Thing?

There is lots of opposition to the vaccines….and now we learn that a ‘booster’ will probably be ready by this Fall……but why a ‘booster’?

A good question since all the info available is confusing us mere mortals and making the dialog even more mind numbing….

What exactly is a booster shot? According to Emily Landon, associate professor at UChicago Medicine, “Boosters are offered to people who got the full course of a vaccine and developed a good response initially, but it waned over time” (via UChicago News). A third round of COVID-19 vaccine shots has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) specifically for those who are immunocompromised. Booster shots, on the other hand, pertain to the general public.

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are categorized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. They function by prompting the body’s natural immunity response in our cells to create and fight off a specific protein known to cause COVID-19.

When it comes to the upcoming booster shots, representatives from both Pfizer and Moderna explain that they have more than one type of booster shot in development (via WUSA9). Some being developed are the same as the initial two doses administered, while others are different and contain variations that cater specifically to the emerging virus variants.

In her Q&A series, Emily Landon goes on to stress the importance of sticking with the same vaccine manufacturer from which individuals received their first two doses (via UChicago News). Therefore, it’s advised that individuals not mix their original Pfizer or Moderna vaccine with a different brand of the booster shot, if possible. Once official approval is obtained from the CDC and FDA for general population usage, individuals should schedule their booster shot eight months out from the date of their original second dose.

Read More: https://www.healthdigest.com/493776/how-is-the-covid-19-booster-different-from-the-original-vaccine/

This for those that are still resistant to getting a vaccine…..

It can feel like the battle lines have been drawn: on one side, those who have been vaccinated, and on the other, those who haven’t.

But things are never that black and white. Even among those who have been vaccinated, many people still have concerns and questions about the vaccine. And among those who haven’t, their reasons for not getting the jab vary from concerns over potential side effects, to a fear of needles, to simply not being able to take time off work. The roughly 30 percent of eligible Americans who have yet to be vaccinated are not all anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists, and treating them as such could make them even less likely to get the shot.

We’ve collected some of the most common concerns with vaccination mentioned by people who are vaccine hesitant, and we’ve provided evidence-based responses to each one. If you or someone you know share any of these concerns, click through to see what information is out there to help you make this important decision.

Still Unsure About Getting The COVID-19 Vaccine? Start Here.

Help keep you self and your family safe in these times……

Get all the info then make your decision….

FYI–We all have heard about the Delta Variant…..and now yet another is poppinbg up….

Another coronavirus variant has been detected, say researchers who caution against becoming too concerned but suspect it’s better at getting around immunity protection than delta. The researchers spotted the C.1.2 variant in May in South Africa, Reuters reports, and published their work this month. It has not been peer-reviewed, but the findings have been forwarded to the World Health Organization. The variant has reached most of the country’s provinces as well as England, China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mauritius, New Zealand, Portugal, and Switzerland. It’s related to the C.1 variant that hit South Africa earlier in the year, per the Hill.

In C.1.2, scientists see “concerning constellations of mutations,” calling it “highly mutated beyond C.1 and all other” variants of concern. The researchers said the new variant is 44 to 59 mutations removed from the original Wuhan Hu-1 virus. WHO lists it, and three other variants, as being “of concern.” Researchers can’t answer many questions about C.1.2 yet. But they say it shares many mutations with other variants linked to greater transmissibility and reduced susceptibility to neutralizing antibodies—though the mutations aren’t mixed the same way. One of the study’s authors said such mutations can be expected as a pandemic progresses. “This virus is still exploring ways to potentially get better at infecting us,” he said.

For God sake (if you believe in God) make your decisions based on facts and not the word of some babbling pastor or an overweight, over paid talk show host.

Be well

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”