Opinion | Covid's Increasing Spread Is a Global Threat - The New York Times

Opinion | Covid's Increasing Spread Is a Global Threat - The New York Times an opinion piece argues that the US needs to assist with global vaccination in order to quell the new variants, and that re-infection may be possible.

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A variant with higher transmissibility is a huge danger to people without immunity either from vaccination or prior infection, even if the variant is no more deadly than previous versions of the virus. Residents of countries like Taiwan or Vietnam that had almost completely kept out the pandemic, and countries like India and Nepal that had fared relatively well until recently, have fairly little immunity, and are largely unvaccinated. A more transmissible variant can burn through such an immunologically naïve population very fast.

Vietnam Detects New Highly Transmissible Coronavirus Variant : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

Vietnam Detects New Highly Transmissible Coronavirus Variant : Coronavirus Updates : NPR: Since the pandemic began, Vietnam has reported 6,713 cases and 47 deaths as of Saturday. A little more than half of the cases and 12 of the deaths were reported in the last month, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Only 47 deaths. I had no idea.

Vietnam Detects New Highly Transmissible Coronavirus Variant : Coronavirus Updates : NPR

Vietnam Detects New Highly Transmissible Coronavirus Variant : Coronavirus Updates : NPR Almost the same headline as the previous story from The Hill. Not sure what is up with that.

India’s Covid Surge Hit Young Patients Hard and Fast

India’s Covid Surge Hit Young Patients Hard and Fast This is worrisome. A number of Indian doctors said those hospitalized in the surge have required more oxygen than Covid-19 patients previously needed. They described seeing faster-spreading lung damage and faster-dropping oxygen levels among relatively young patients, and longer recovery times. Covid-19 patients at all age levels have had increased oxygen needs, doctors said, but they were especially surprised to see this in younger patients.

New Variant Posing Threat, as Global Vaccine Drive Falters - The New York Times

New Variant Posing Threat, as Global Vaccine Drive Falters - The New York Times The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offered 88 percent protection against the variant first sampled in India, only a slight drop from the 93 percent protection given against the variant from Britain, Public Health England said. The AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine was 60 percent effective against the variant from India, compared to 66 percent effective against the one first seen in Britain. Those are not great odds.

Coronavirus variant B.1.617 first seen in India now in US what to know

Coronavirus variant B.1.617 first seen in India now in US what to know It's here. Nobody seems that worried. It's sometimes called a "double mutant" because it has double the number of mutations as some earlier variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. The concern at firstwas that might make it doubly dangerous. "The good news is, this doesn't appear to be the case. Having both mutations was no worse than having just one," said Dr. Charles Chiu, a professor and expert in viral genomics at the University of California, San Francisco.

Covid variant from India could become dominant in the UK

Covid variant from India could become dominant in the UK: It's arrive in the UK, so I guess we'll soon see what happens to the numbers. When it hits the US I think people will be hesitant to put their masks back on. The realy question I'm pondering is whether B.1.617 will influence the mask-and-vaccine hesitant to change their behavior. Then again, people still smoke.