India's Massive Surge Puzzles Scientists

India%u2019s%20massive%20COVID%20surge%20puzzles%20scientists “The second wave has made the last one look like a ripple in a bathtub,” says Zarir Udwadia, a clinician-researcher in pulmonary medicine at P D Hinduja Hospital & Medical Research Centre in Mumbai, who spoke to Nature during a break from working in the intensive-care unit. He describes a “nightmarish” situation at hospitals, where beds and treatments are in extremely short supply.

COVID swallowing people in India as crematoriums overwhelmed

COVID swallowing people in India as crematoriums overwhelmed

charlottekupsh on Twitter: "THREAD: what we know about COVID, a primer for folks who are overwhelmed and do not have time or energy to catch up on the latest info about transmission, vaccines, masks, etc. (This is mostly for my friends & I am just a woman with a laptop and anxiety--correct me if I'm wrong.)" / Twitter

charlottekupsh on Twitter: "THREAD: what we know about COVID, a primer for folks who are overwhelmed and do not have time or energy to catch up on the latest info about transmission, vaccines, masks, etc. (This is mostly for my friends & I am just a woman with a laptop and anxiety--correct me if I'm wrong.)" / Twitter Really great, useful thread.

'Double Mutant' Variant In India Shouldn't Really Be Called That, Scientists Say : Goats and Soda : NPR

'Double Mutant' Variant In India Shouldn't Really Be Called That, Scientists Say : Goats and Soda : NPR There are also signs that people who have already had COVID-19 can be reinfected more easily with this strain, Gupta wrote, especially over time, as their natural immunity wanes. These reinfections may be driving this second, explosive surge in India.

'Double Mutant' Variant In India Shouldn't Really Be Called That, Scientists Say : Goats and Soda : NPR

'Double Mutant' Variant In India Shouldn't Really Be Called That, Scientists Say : Goats and Soda : NPR Preliminary evidence suggests that B1.617 is more contagious than previous strains of the virus. A study published Tuesday found that the L452R mutation may enhance the ability of viruses to infect human cells in the laboratory. The variant in California, which carries this same mutation, is about 20 percent more transmissible than older strains of the virus. B.1.617 is also spreading quickly in India. Over the past few months, it has become the dominant strain in the state of Maharashtra, Nature has reported. But, Andersen says, no one knows for sure if B.1.617 is more transmissible and thus driving India's surge. "We also know the B.1.1.7 [the variant first detected in the U.K.] is circulating in India, and we know that P.1. [the variant first detected in Brazil] is also circulating there, too. So they could also play a role in this surge. We simply don't have the data yet."

Vaccines Are Effective Against the New York Variant, Studies Find - The New York Times

Vaccines Are Effective Against the New York Variant, Studies Find - The New York Times Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines will effectively prevent serious illness and death from the variant, two independent studies suggest. Antibodies stimulated by those vaccines are only slightly less potent at controlling the variant than the original form of the virus, both studies found. “We’re not seeing big differences,” said Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University in New York and a member of the team that published one of the studies on Thursday.

The system has collapsed.

The system is collapsing in India--The Guardian Hospitals across the country have filled to capacity but this time it is predominately the young taking up the beds; in Delhi, 65% of cases are under 40 years old. While the unprecedented spread of the virus has been partly blamed on a more contagious variant that has emerged in India, Modi’s government has also been accused of failures of political leadership from the top, with lax attitudes emulated by state and local leaders from all parties and even health officials across the country, which led many to falsely believe in recent months that India had defeated Covid .