Covid Varients

[Lambykins]

We've all heard of Delta...now along comes Lambda.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/texas-hospital-reports-1st-case-lambda-covid-19/story?id=78943641
https://theconversation.com/the-lambda-variant-is-it-more-infectious-and-can-it-escape-vaccines-a-virologist-explains-164156
Main takeaway is that Lambda is probably not responsive to vaccines. It has mutated to where it has a vaccine avoidant profile.
So...what now?

[boskone]

I'm putting in a suggestion at work that we go back to WFH before the spread really starts.

Not that they'll listen.

On the upside, I think delta is milder than base COVID-19, and lambda less transmissible?

[EBuff75]

It looks like the vaccines should work fairly well against lambda, but the research is ongoing. 

Yet another SARS-CoV-2 variant is making headlines, but experts reassure that early evidence suggests it can't substantially evade vaccines  --  though it does have potential to become a variant of concern, one expert said.
The Lambda (C.37) variant, first identified in Peru in December 2020, now accounts for the majority of infections there, and is on the rise in other South American countries, including Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, and Brazil.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/93458
 

Part of the issue in Chile appears to be the vaccine that they're using, along with people going back to normal activities after just a single dose. The CoronaVac vaccine (which accounts for most of the vaccinations in Chile) is only 3% effective after one dose and only slightly better than a coin flip (56.5%) after two.  https://www.bmj.com/content/373/bmj.n1023
 

On the plus side for me, my company isn't going back to the office until this fall and even then, we're only being asked to go in 2 days per week.  Our CEO is something of a germaphobe, so if things heat back up, he's likely to delay our return even further.

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

COVID variant B.1.1.529

https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-lifestyle-health-travel-europe-116ef818ac4a8e7bc23bb28d6511ecad
- From just over 200 new confirmed cases per day in recent weeks, South Africa saw the number of new daily cases rocket to 2,465 on Thursday. Struggling to explain the sudden rise in cases, scientists studied virus samples from the outbreak and discovered the new variant.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/new-covid-variant-triggers-sudden-global-alarm-and-travel-bans/ar-AARafQu?ocid=BingNews
- "This is the most significant variant we have encountered to date and urgent research is underway to learn more about its transmissibility, severity and vaccine-susceptibility," said Dr Jenny Harries, chief executive of the U.K. Health Security Agency. "A clear reminder that this pandemic is not over."

https://www.foxnews.com/health/who-meets-to-discuss-new-heavily-mutated-covid-19-variant
- "This variant did surprise us," Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Center for South Africa's Epidemic Response and Innovation, told the news outlet. "It has a big jump on evolution [and] many more mutations that we expected."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/chart-shows-how-quickly-the-new-coronavirus-variant-spread-in-part-of-south-africa-totally-supplanting-delta/ar-AARagXU?ocid=BingNewsSearch
- Chart from South African officials shows how a new coronavirus variant quickly came to dominate in a province of the country, supplanting the Delta variant.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/israel-has-reported-its-first-covid-19-case-involving-a-worrying-new-coronavirus-variant-thats-spreading-fast-in-southern-africa/ar-AAR9XKf?ocid=BingNewsSearch
- Israel has reported its first COVID-19 case involving the new coronavirus variant. The B.1.1.529 variant was detected in a person traveling to Israel from Malawi, the Israeli health ministry said.

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/hosts-special-meeting-worrying-covid-19-variant-81404007
- WHO hosts special meeting on B.1.1.529

https://www.reuters.com/breakingviews/new-covid-19-variant-raises-risk-recovery-limbo-2021-11-26/
- B.1.1.529 variant raises risk of recovery limbo.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-59427770
- Countries shut borders over new B.1.1.529 variant.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59428398
- Sajid Javid says UK must act quickly over public health risk. Experience has shown "we must move quickly and at the earliest possible moment".  He said it might be more transmissible, vaccines might be less effective against it and it might affect one of the UK's major treatments, Ronapreve. No cases of the variant have yet been detected in the UK.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/covid-live-savid-javid-says-new-variant-e2-80-98may-pose-substantial-risk-e2-80-99-as-more-countries-impose-travel-restrictions/ar-AAR9r5S?ocid=BingNewsSearch
- The Guardian:
BioNTech, the German company which developed the first Covid vaccine, has said in an interview it is studying closely B.1.1.529 and will have conclusive data from laboratory tests at the latest in two weeks. Pfizer and BioNTech started several months ago to ensure that in the case of an escape variant, the mRNA vaccine can be adapted within six weeks, the first doses of which would be ready to dispatch within 100 days.

[Mister_Dark]

"Omicron".     yay.

Well, this will ease the supply chain problems at least.

[Ever (Zombiepreparation)]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/nov/30/moderna-boss-predicts-current-vaccines-may-be-less-effective-against-omicron
The Guardian


Pfizer-BioNtech
Uğur Şahin, the CE and co-founder of Pfizer's German partner BioNTech
- He and the University of Oxford which makes the AstraZeneca are predicting existing jabs would continue to prevent severe disease.
- "We think it's likely that people will have substantial protection against severe disease caused by Omicron".


Moderna disagrees:
Stéphane Bancel is the CEO of Moderna, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- On November 30th he announced to the Financial Times that he predicts the existing vaccines will be less effective against Omicron than they have been against the Delta coronavirus variant.
- It will take two weeks to get data on how the existing vaccines performed against the new Covid variant and whether it caused severe disease.
- It will take several months to tweak vaccines to tackle it.
- "There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is at the same level ... we had with Delta," he told the FT.






- The remarks come amid conflicting information about how effective various vaccines. "The comments probably reflect the reality of the current situation and the unncertainty surrounding the Omicron impact. We should get more clarity in a couple of weeks, but the market would remain subject to headline risk till then."




Or to put it another way: More data is needed. It's jumping the gun to make pamdemic predictions That Spread Around An Already Fear Filled World In Seconds without test able amounts of data.

[RoneKiln]

The only reason they even looked for the new variant was recognizing a lot of people with a mild headache and feeling run down had COVID. The incredibly mild symptoms were strange.

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/safrican-doctor-says-patients-with-omicron-variant-have-very-mild-symptoms-2021-11-28/

If we step back and think on that, this variant could have been widespread for months and nobody was even looking for it. Now that people are looking for it, we find tons of cases and it looks like this is exploding.

The typical reaction to it appears to be equal or less than what the vaccine did to me.

Even a common cold can kill someone with comorbidities, and one more disease variant loose will harm people. I don't want to just dismiss this new variant. It is worth keeping an eye on. The way some people are panicking over it may do more harm than the disease though.