Another new COVID strain found in Nigeria, says Africa CDC
www.aljazeera.com
News comes after UK and South Africa report new and more contagious variants of virus, leading to travel restrictions.

🙃🙃🙃🙃🙃

we're going to be dealing with this for the rest of our lives. climate change isn't going to get to kill capitalism because covid beat it to the punch.

  • carlin [he/him,comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    There are countless COVID strains as they are constantly mutating from host to host. What matters is whether the mutations:

    1. Are more infectious (Britain)
    2. Are more deadly
    3. Change the spike protein such that current immunity and vaccines stop working

    for now there is not need to panic/be doomer:

    do not have evidence to indicate that the P681H variant is contributing to increased transmission of the virus in Nigeria. However, the relative difference in scale of genomic surveillance in Nigeria vs the UK may imply a reduced power to detect such changes

    but there is no way to predict the likelihood of a more potent mutation will appear in the future

    • the_river_cass [she/her]
      ·
      4 years ago

      the South African strain seems to be the most alarming strain for sure. it appears to check all three boxes (we don't know yet if it evades the vaccine but the mutation is in the spike protein)

      • halfpipe [they/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        The UK strain is actually the real fucker, because 50% more deadly is still only a ~1.5% death rate, but 70% more infectious means the 1% death is now hitting tens of millions of more people.

        Not to mention the much larger number of people who will survive it but then have lifelong health problems.

        • the_river_cass [she/her]
          ·
          4 years ago

          the south african strain appears to be highly transmissible (similarly to the UK strain) and more lethal and has a mutation in the spike protein, potentially impacting the vaccine.

          • OgdenTO [he/him]
            ·
            4 years ago

            Would this affect only the mRNA vaccines? That is, would china's whole inactivated virus vaccine likely still be effective?

              • OgdenTO [he/him]
                ·
                4 years ago

                Well, yes, I guess i meant - does the whole virus vaccine depend entirely on the spike protein ? Does the mRNA vaccine?

                Edit: here's a good paper https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2798-3

                Overall, it states that coronavac likely has widespread effect against a number of proteins, while the mRNA vaccines seem to be specifically targeting the spike protein (either all of it or just part of the protein)

                Additionally, it lists "adverse events" caused by the vaccines in trials and the mRNA vaccines seem to elicit headaches and fever in 50% or higher of all people who got the vaccine at higher doses (in the range of what is in the actual vaccine), while coronavac reported no adverse events from the full, inactivated virus vaccine they have.

                • the_river_cass [she/her]
                  ·
                  4 years ago

                  the mRNA vaccines only produce the spike protein so yes, they're dependent on it. I don't know enough about coronavac to say.

      • carlin [he/him,comrade/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Most probably not, as the vaccine "trains" your body to recognise the spike protein. If that doesn't significantly change, the body should still be able to combat it.

        (however I'm not an expert, but this is what I've heard from other more knowledgeable people)

    • TankieTanuki [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Viruses like this mutate at a rate of about one base pair per day (if I'm not mistaken).

    • cilantrofellow [any]
      ·
      4 years ago

      While they’re all awful, the third one I think is the most concerning since we’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel otherwise with vaccine. I have heard that the spread claims for the UK variant are hypotheses that haven’t really been properly tested (how can you?) and that the spread can be explained by poor pandemic responses as well.

      That there are so many strains being identified now makes me think there is a real possibility of vaccine escape occurring, particular as these pressures become more common- i.e. in immunized populations.