AirBear

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-59424269

-They haven't done testing yet but are very concerned because this variant is so different from the original Wuhan one
-UK is blocking flights from South Africa and other areas affected
-50 mutations overall and 30 mutations on the spike protein

here's a few snippets from the article:
-But the big questions - how much does it evade vaccines, is it more severe, does it spread faster that Delta - are unanswerable for now.
-Experts in South Africa have said the variant is "very different" to others that have circulated, with concerns that it could be more transmissible but also able to get around parts of the immune system.
-It is the most heavily mutated variant so far and is now radically different to the form that emerged in Wuhan, China

Let's hope they find out it's not able to defeat the current vaccines. I have doubts they'll be able to contain it to the current affected areas.

Mesabah

Yeah Nu, this one is very interesting, it's very different, and highly evolved with mutations to the RBD. This suggests a new strain that is possibly a spill back from an animal reservoir, but most likely a very very long infection(more than 6 months) in a human patient.

kaputt

Lockdown and vaccine mandate protests growing? Time to ramp up the fear porn train again.

DeltaboundRedux

Not to worry.

Pfizer says they can whip up a new batch of potions to cure this in 100 days.

Available worldwide (For a reasonable fee, of course. After all, we're not communists).

DropTank

If the 500% increase is even partially true, this is a big problem.

I'm curious if the uptick in Europe is related to this mutation.

If this is serious, I mean really REALLY serious, AND the Pfizer claim is remotely true, it will still take months to deploy.

This would imply a possible multi month lockdown.

I hope I'm wrong.

Mesabah

No, you're correct, the mutations are where the current vaccine is targeted, the now sub-optimal binding without neutralization is disease enhancing. Let's pray this thing doesn't take off, although natural immunity appears to still be holding, and that's a large firewall.

ZapBrannigan

Epidemiologist I follow on Twitter says it's way too early to tell. There was little Delta variant in South Africa so no way to know which variant would come out on top. She also says the vaccines are polyclonal and doesn't believe that even with the dramatic increase of mutations on the spike protein that it'll be able to escape vaccines.

She is admittedly an optimist, but if you're interested Read the thread here.

https://twitter.com/sailorrooscout/s...731820043?s=20

DeltaboundRedux

I see the UK has suspended flights to/from South Africa.

As of this writing, Delta and United are still on for flights next month. Working closely with authorities, etc. etc.

(Science!)

rickair7777

So far anecdotal reports only of breakthrough (vaccine or natural).

Also severity not known... make enough changes and it's likely to be change the potency of the bug, for better or worse. Mutations do not inherently correlate to severe disease, in fact evolution doesn't really reward that in the long run (the host population dies off, evolves to evade, or takes deliberate measures to avoid infection in the case of one species). South Africa has very little Delta right now, so there's no clear compare and contrast of Nu vs Delta.

Do you have a link to discussion of enhancement? I haven't seen anything about that yet, but was busy cooking a turkey yesterday.

ugleeual

^^^ This South African variant, thus far, is not as deadly as other previous variants. Viruses mutate all the time (look at flu) and Covid won’t be any different. Historically each variant becomes more communicable but less deadly as time goes on.