I’m reposting something I posted late last night, in case some haven’t seen it.
I really thing public health authorities here in the U.S. and overseas, as well as global agencies, have been too slow to identify and communicate potentially major issues. One example is the `Indian’ variant, B.1.617, which only yesterday was identified as a variant of concern. Prior to that WHO refused to reclassify it. Why?
Don’t know why it took WHO so long to consider the B.1.617 variant (`Indian’ variant) a “variant of concern.” It does now. But I could have told them this weeks ago. It’s bleeding obvious that this variant is more transmissible and lethal (including younger folks) than the original so-called wild type virus. This video of a young pregnant woman (who later died) is heartbreaking but an important message, not only for her fellow Indians but also other nations in the region that are experiencing a relentless wave. https://twitter.com/BBCRajiniV/status/1391482537416044547
Another lesson from this pandemic: Stop being so slow to respond, public health authorities, and stop waiting for confirmatory data when keen observation is all you need initially to spread the word of caution. Better safe than sorry. If the observation turns out to be wrong, then at least you operated on the cautionary principle. Right now, unfortunately, everyone is acting on the reactionary principle. That is not smart, in my view.
Thanks for reposting Joshua. Hope that India variant doesn’t spread here in the U.S. or to any other nation for that matter.
Joshua, how does a variant get assigned to a specific number? Coincidentally ‘617’ as you know is one of Boston’s area codes.
Thanks for reposting. I would have missed
How many times are we going to pretend that every stinking time covid, variants and all have a pattern of movement….. country to country, state to state, area of state to area of state.
We are truly a ship of fools. Not all but enough to sink that ship.
I’m hopeful the vaccines – specifically the mRNA vaccines – will be able to combat all variants. But, right now we don’t know that. A WHO spokesperson, the American technical lead scientist, Maria Van Kerkhove, explicitly stated yesterday that the B.1.617 variant appears harder to neutralize with our current set of vaccines. She was careful not to say the B.1.617 variant is vaccine-evading. I think it’s all a matter of degrees. So long as the vaccines have reasonable efficacy we’ll be okay. However, we don’t yet have a number on the efficacy.
Philip, I don’t know how they assign numbers to the variants.
Thanks anyway Joshua. 🙂
I sure hope our rush to loosen restrictions doesn’t come back to kick us in the teeth. If we know this….and we have for quite a while…then our leaders surely know it as well.
I’m reposting something I posted late last night, in case some haven’t seen it.
I really thing public health authorities here in the U.S. and overseas, as well as global agencies, have been too slow to identify and communicate potentially major issues. One example is the `Indian’ variant, B.1.617, which only yesterday was identified as a variant of concern. Prior to that WHO refused to reclassify it. Why?
Don’t know why it took WHO so long to consider the B.1.617 variant (`Indian’ variant) a “variant of concern.” It does now. But I could have told them this weeks ago. It’s bleeding obvious that this variant is more transmissible and lethal (including younger folks) than the original so-called wild type virus. This video of a young pregnant woman (who later died) is heartbreaking but an important message, not only for her fellow Indians but also other nations in the region that are experiencing a relentless wave. https://twitter.com/BBCRajiniV/status/1391482537416044547
Another lesson from this pandemic: Stop being so slow to respond, public health authorities, and stop waiting for confirmatory data when keen observation is all you need initially to spread the word of caution. Better safe than sorry. If the observation turns out to be wrong, then at least you operated on the cautionary principle. Right now, unfortunately, everyone is acting on the reactionary principle. That is not smart, in my view.
Thanks for reposting Joshua. Hope that India variant doesn’t spread here in the U.S. or to any other nation for that matter.
Joshua, how does a variant get assigned to a specific number? Coincidentally ‘617’ as you know is one of Boston’s area codes.
Thanks for reposting. I would have missed
How many times are we going to pretend that every stinking time covid, variants and all have a pattern of movement….. country to country, state to state, area of state to area of state.
We are truly a ship of fools. Not all but enough to sink that ship.
I’m hopeful the vaccines – specifically the mRNA vaccines – will be able to combat all variants. But, right now we don’t know that. A WHO spokesperson, the American technical lead scientist, Maria Van Kerkhove, explicitly stated yesterday that the B.1.617 variant appears harder to neutralize with our current set of vaccines. She was careful not to say the B.1.617 variant is vaccine-evading. I think it’s all a matter of degrees. So long as the vaccines have reasonable efficacy we’ll be okay. However, we don’t yet have a number on the efficacy.
Philip, I don’t know how they assign numbers to the variants.
Thanks anyway Joshua. 🙂
I sure hope our rush to loosen restrictions doesn’t come back to kick us in the teeth. If we know this….and we have for quite a while…then our leaders surely know it as well.
The NY Times had an article about the naming of Covid-19 variants:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/02/health/virus-variant-names.html
If you are not able to view that article, try this one instead:
https://www.advisory.com/en/daily-briefing/2021/03/04/variant-names
Thank you, SClarke!
Thank you. I have P.1 and B.1.617 down pretty well but after that I’m lost. I’ll just say
Eeeek
C-19 for 5-12 is ready.