New Covid variant is detected in the UK & US

[Cattledog]

Delta + sub variant. ABC World News Tonight.

[angrychair]

1. Awesome

The unvaccinated will be the death of...well, most of us.

[Nittersing]

3. Here's what I found

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/dr-gottlieb-warns-new-super-variant-behind-latest-covid-comeback-uk

UK reported its biggest one-day Covid case increase in 3 months just as the new delta variant AY.4 with the S:Y145H mutation in the spike reaches 8% of UK sequenced cases. We need urgent research to figure out if this delta plus is more transmissible, has partial immune evasion?

The variant has been in the UK since about July, but it has been slowly increasing in prevalence. There’s no clear indication that it’s considerably more transmissible, but we should work to more quickly characterize these and other new variants. We have the tools.

This is not a cause for immediate concern but a reminder that we need robust systems to identify, characterize new variants. This needs to be a coordinated, global priority for Covid same as similar international efforts have become standard practice in influenza.

[Celerity]

4. Delta Plus Variant, AY.4.2

https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/what-is-ay4-2-variant

When public health officials talk about COVID-19 variants, people pay attention. And that's exactly what happened after former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, tweeted about a new Delta subtype over the weekend.

"UK reported its biggest one-day Covid case increase in 3 months just as the new delta variant AY.4 with the S:Y145H mutation in the spike reaches 8% of UK sequenced cases," Dr. Gottlieb wrote. "We need urgent research to figure out if this delta plus is more transmissible, has partial immune evasion?"

Link to tweet

[OrlandoDem2]

5. Society will come unglued if something worse than delta takes hold and spikes again.

People will lose their damn minds, as if they haven’t already but you know what I mean.

[madville]

6. I figure COVID is with us for years if not decades to come

It's more likely we just adapt to it as the new normal. Get vaccinated and live life the best you can. As long as we keep the economy moving it won't be that bad, luckily I don't think anyone has an appetite for anymore serious shutdowns.

[Maru Kitteh]

7. Delta plus has been around for a while now. I first read about it early/mid summer.

Unless it is significantly more transmissible and/or causes a good deal greater amount of morbidity/mortality it will be of little interest to people other than total nerds like me.

Remember when a writer breathlessly announced that the mu variant posed "a significant threat to human society?"

We should absolutely keep our eyes open. That's the very purpose of surveillance. That being said, every new variant is not cause for panic - in fact - at this point we should probably hope for variants. It's our best chance for this to become a less lethal endemic disease, and there doesn't seem to be a reason to think it will not be endemic. I'd vastly prefer a less killing variety.

A variant that is even easier to spread than Delta but far easier to deal with (kinda like type-b influenza) would be a good thing because the transmissibility would mean it would crowd out the far deadlier Delta. I'm good with that.

[roamer65]

8. 2.67 billion.

If we reach the roundabout 33 percent infection rate of the 1918-1920 flu virus…that’s how far we have to go yet.

The population was 1.5 billion in 1918 and they figure around 500 million caught the virus.

Will we get to 2.67 billion? I doubt it, but I think 1 - 1.5 billion is very possible.

[ananda]

9. 6 cases in the USA, acc to Newsweek

However, there have only been six U.S. cases reported and it does not appear to have been spreading recently in the states.

Delta has branched off into dozens of different types that are referred to with the 'AY' label.