15 thoughts on “C-19 Chat Post – November 25 2021”

  1. Growing number of expert are concerned about the new variant: Nu, or B.1.1.529. It’s certainly a wild one in that it has 32 significant mutations, several of which point to vaccine evasive properties. I hope this becomes an “unstable” variant and doesn’t spread widely and isn’t a competitor with Delta. On the other hand, if it does out-compete Delta, we’re in deep trouble. https://twitter.com/zeynep/status/1463917444381216768

  2. Joshua, thank you! this may explain my wife’s latest premonition or at least very strong feeling that today might be our last
    Thanks Giving! Good Grief!!!

  3. UK is already banning ALL flights from South Africa as well as 6 other African nations, starting tomorrow. Those coming in on flights between now and tomorrow will have to quarantine for 14 days in a government-authorized hotel. The fact that the UK is acting so quickly means the government there is concerned. On the other hand, crickets on this side of the Atlantic.

      1. Israel just banned flights, too, and enacted strict 14 day quarantines for returning travelers.

        European countries will be doing so in short order.

        By the time the U.S. bans flights it will be too late. And, I doubt it will ever institute a proper quarantine. And then they’ll maintain the travel ban for too long. Biden must act now, as in today, and not dither. South Africa is seeing an exponential spike in B.1.1.529 cases. It’s not just a “cluster” as was first reported. This is serious. I was wrong to dismiss it the other day (my hopeful side gets the better of me sometimes). But, my point now is that this is a moment in which decisions must be made immediately.

    1. As I’ve said before I’m not in favor of long travel bans at all. in fact, they’re not helpful once a variant is already here. But at this point the B.1.1.529 may not be here. The UK and Israel have not detected it yet. While it’s being investigated – which takes 2 to 3 weeks – institute a temporary flight ban. I believe that is sensible. The most important thing to test for is vaccine evasiveness, which evidently can be done in a 2 to 3 week time span. This would not be a real-world study as that would take much longer. But it would be a lab study, investigating how the mutated spike proteins line up against the vaccines.

Comments are closed.