I think soon every corner of the planet will get its own variant and we will probably be screwed.
I had posted earlier a study showing that every single person who has been infected likely has a variant of some sort. This is the nature of viral evolution. And why slow vaccine rollout is such a potential disaster. It gives the bug way too much time, in viral generations, to adapt to the new evolutionary pressures.
(ETA: Paper I cited
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) by the numbers (nih.gov)
7. What can we learn from the mutation rate of the virus?
Studying viral evolution, researchers commonly use two measures describing the rate of genomic change. The first is the evolutionary rate, which is defined as the average number of substitutions that become fixed per year in strains of the virus, given in units of mutations per site per year. The second is the mutation rate, which is the number of substitutions per site per replication cycle. How can we relate these two values? Consider a single site at the end of a year. The only measurement of a mutation rate in a β-coronavirus suggests that this site will accumulate ~10exp–6 mutations in each round of replication. Each replication cycle takes ~10 hr, and so there are 10exp3 cycles/year. Multiplying the mutation rate by the number of replications, assuming neutrality and neglecting the effects of evolutionary selection, we arrive at 10exp–3 mutations per site per year, consistent with the evolutionary rate inferred from sequenced coronavirus genomes. As our estimate is consistent with the measured rate, we infer that the virus undergoes near-continuous replication in the wild, constantly generating new mutations that accumulate over the course of the year. Using our knowledge of the mutation rate, we can also draw inferences about single infections. For example, since the mutation rate is ~10exp–6 mutations/site/cycle and an mL of sputum might contain upwards of 10exp7 viral RNAs, we infer that every site is mutated more than once in such samples .)
The FIOCRUZ foundation found the very first case of reinfection by the brazilian variant of the virus.
According to this article, the patient had first been diagnosed on March 24, 2020 with covid-19 and had the second positive result for SARS-CoV-2 after nine months. They collected her material on December 30 through an RT-PCR test.
The variant that contaminated the woman is the same that was identified in Japan by researchers who analyzed samples of people who were in the state of Amazonas
According to local newspapers, attacks on the Chinese government by members of the Brazilian government and one of the Bolsonaro boys made things worse for us.
The journalist Andrea Sadi said that as the country is without key ingredients for the production of the vaccines, the doses that are being already distributed to the states may end at the end of this month.
She stated that Gen. Pazuello, Health Minister, and Ernesto Araújo, Foreign Affairs Secretary, are in contact with the Chinese government, but Araújo’s belligerent stance hinders negotiations.
I hope he is right!
Operation Come Up With A “Cool” Name, Claim to Be Doing Things and Watch the Media Eat It Up Uncritically lumbering towards its inevitable conclusion.
And that conclusion will be one million, “Why Didn’t Joe Biden Do More?” articles.
Why are Democratic governors continuing to flail around like this? It’s like they’ve spent 10 months keenly studying the polling on covid19 and not one minute learning about the virus itself.
Do the state’s COVID metrics even matter anymore?
Gov. Whitmer provided a three-and-a-half page “rationale” for reopening schools. But most of the reasons it offers have been obvious for a long time. It says, “schools are essential,” “students have struggled with remote learning” and “parents need schools open in order to support their families and contribute to our economy.”
I think they are buckling after months of getting hammered on many fronts by the GOP. They’ve been threatened, sued, and confronted with attempts to limit their emergency powers by pro-business and anti-mask groups. My hope is that better federal policies will take the pressure off them in the short term.
I think this is largely true. Leadership and assistance at the federal level would be a true game changer.
i’m not sure. i still fail to see why most states seem to be prioritizing getting teachers vaccinated instead of people who have to be in public. like bus drivers, food production workers, warehouse workers, and retail.
at the rate we’re going, teachers will be vaccinated just in time for summer break anyway. so why put them before people who are out there every day already?
All of the above. Not to mention attempted kidnappings and executions, in the case of Whitmer.
Watching the inauguration, and Garth Brooks came out with his mask on, sang, then forgot to put it back on and ran around and hugged basically every notable person on stage. Ye gods…
I kinda flipped out when I saw that, too. I wondered aloud why that idea hadn’t been added to the Secret Service’s rules of disengagement.
Then I realized that they’ve likely done something similar to the SNL Protocol. Then I later realized that nearly everyone on that dais was probably vaccinated a month ago. Still, though.
Michigan pot shops giving free joints to folks who got COVID-19 vaccine (freep.com)
Now this is how you do it!! You go, Michigan!!
Fucking hell.
