PunkTheFunk 125,703 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 UK coronavirus variant spreading 'rapidly' through US, study finds The coronavirus variant that has moved through the UK is now spreading "rapidly" through the US, according to a new study published on Sunday. The more contagious strain is nearly doubling its prevalence among confirmed cases in the US every nine days. The spread of the variant, known as B.1.1.7, has put added pressure on vaccination efforts worldwide. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has predicted it could be the predominant strain by March. The report, posted on the preprint server MedRxiv, is a collaboration of several researchers and scientists. It has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a journal. Case numbers of the new variant are still somewhat small in the US. According to the CDC, Florida leads the country in reported cases of B.1.1.7 with 187 as of Thursday, followed by California with 145. "Our study shows that the US is on a similar trajectory as other countries where B.1.1.7 rapidly became the dominant SARS-CoV-2 variant, requiring immediate and decisive action to minimize Covid-19 morbidity and mortality," the report's authors wrote. This new strain is 35-45% more transmissible than other strains of the virus currently in the US, the report found. When the CDC first warned of the new variant's presence in the US in mid-January, it was present in less than 0.5% of cases. By the end of the month, this figure had jumped to 3.6%, according to the study. The report comes as the United States' winter virus surge passes its peak. Daily cases throughout the country have been falling for about a month, since early January. But the average daily death toll remains extremely high - some 3,000 per day - and hospitals remain under immense pressure. The B.1.1.7 variant, first discovered in Britain, has so far spread to more than 50 countries. There has been some suggestion that the strain may be associated with a 30% higher risk of death, but the evidence on this is not strong, and the data is still uncertain. Current vaccines were designed around earlier variants but initial studies have indicated that that the Pfizer, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines will all protect against the B.1.1.7 strain. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55986819 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delulu Rogers 7,662 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Has travel from Europe not been cancelled? Does Biden have a plan? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GagaSine 7,464 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Hate to see it Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PunkTheFunk 125,703 Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 2 minutes ago, Delulu Rogers said: Has travel from Europe not been cancelled? Does Biden have a plan? Travel from Europe has been restricted, but it's too late anyway because the variant is already here. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
arrtpop 2,752 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 im genuinely so scared aphrodite Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookie Tookie 10,546 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Only a matter of time before we’re going to need a new vaccine... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RRR 3,996 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PartySick 172,535 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 3 minutes ago, Cookie Tookie said: Only a matter of time before we’re going to need a new vaccine... Which is ok. Making the vaccine was the hard part, tweaking it to cover different variants of the same virus won't be nearly as difficult and that's assuming our current vaccine isn't effective against new strains. It looks like that isn't the case though and we should still be ok. Whimsical bitch Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AntonTurnItUp 7,088 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 I can't anymore with this pandemic for real Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahb 17,188 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Before you all panic too much "Researchers in the United States have conducted a study showing that the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine effectively protects against recently emerged variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The team compared the neutralization activity of blood taken from infected and vaccinated individuals against a panel of SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the B.1.1.7 that emerged in the UK. The team – from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, the University of Texas Medical Branch, and the COVID-19 Neutralization Study Group – found that antibodies generated by both infected and vaccinated individuals effectively neutralized all of the variants." "These findings support the notion that in the context of the UK variant, vaccine-induced immunity can provide protection against COVID-19,” says Mehul Suthar and colleagues. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210208/Modernas-COVID-9-vaccine-effective-against-emerging-variants.aspx Do you feel him sir? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlondeQueenOfGGD 25,454 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Dear covid variant, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morphine Prince 109,656 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Moderna and Pfizer are effective against it so us vaccinated folks are good. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
PunkTheFunk 125,703 Posted February 9, 2021 Author Share Posted February 9, 2021 10 minutes ago, sarahb said: Before you all panic too much "Researchers in the United States have conducted a study showing that the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine effectively protects against recently emerged variants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 – the agent that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The team compared the neutralization activity of blood taken from infected and vaccinated individuals against a panel of SARS-CoV-2 variants, including the B.1.1.7 that emerged in the UK. The team – from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, the University of Texas Medical Branch, and the COVID-19 Neutralization Study Group – found that antibodies generated by both infected and vaccinated individuals effectively neutralized all of the variants." "These findings support the notion that in the context of the UK variant, vaccine-induced immunity can provide protection against COVID-19,” says Mehul Suthar and colleagues. https://www.news-medical.net/news/20210208/Modernas-COVID-9-vaccine-effective-against-emerging-variants.aspx I think the panic here is not so much that the vaccines won't protect against the variant. It will and that is stated in the article. It's that the variant will rip through the population even faster than the regular strain and cause a big uptick in cases and deaths, and the vaccines won't be able to catch up. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franch Toast 27,737 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 5 minutes ago, PunkTheFunk said: I think the panic here is not so much that the vaccines won't protect against the variant. It will and that is stated in the article. It's that the variant will rip through the population even faster than the regular strain and cause a big uptick in cases and deaths, and the vaccines won't be able to catch up. This. And most of us aren't vaccinated yet. She/Her/Hers Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alecks 751 Posted February 9, 2021 Share Posted February 9, 2021 Stuff like this makes me worry we’ll never get back to a “normal. ” Or if we do, we’ll probably have to accept it sticking around forever like the flu or common cold. This is probably going to keep happening… with borders closed, most countries are essentially brewing up their own special variant just waiting to be released when the borders re-open Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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