If you wait for the evidence it's closing the stable door after the horse has bolted... this is a time when the precautionary principle can be justified.And no evidence of increased risk of severe illness.
I wonder if the variant had been found in Germany, what our reaction would have been. Can't see the rest of Europe rushing to impose travel bans before scientists had the chance to do their job.
But the whole of the EU has imposed travel bans, I think now there is enough evidence to at least get ready, hopefully it's not as dangerous as feared but labs will busy trying to ascertain that.And no evidence of increased risk of severe illness.
I wonder if the variant had been found in Germany, what our reaction would have been. Can't see the rest of Europe rushing to impose travel bans before scientists had the chance to do their job.
The Belgium case has been traced to a person flying in from Egypt.Its already in Belgium and probably by local transmission. Have we banned travel with Belgium? Thousands of people have travelled from South Africa to the UK in the past two weeks. Glad to know treaties are more important than stopping the spread of covid.
I have no issue with travel restrictions but they won't work. The variant has already left Africa. South Africa did a brilliant job identifying and reporting the variant and they have been completely ostracised. Good luck getting the next country to be transparent.
Even the WHO have said we need to calm down. There is no evidence to suggest that this variant is any more deadly or the vaccines are any less effective against serious illness. And yet, reading reports today, we might as well all just run for nearest dark cave.
On the one hard, you have Governments trying to convince people to get vaccinated and take boosters and then you have complete scaremongering that this new variant means that it is all pointless. Let them look at the variant and the vaccines and see what is happening. Some of the reporting today is just ridiculous.
Chris Whitty the UK cmo is of the opinion that this is actually less dangerous than the delta variant and widespread scepticism that it can jump the vaccine anyway, hopefully this is looking like a damp squib.But the whole of the EU has imposed travel bans, I think now there is enough evidence to at least get ready, hopefully it's not as dangerous as feared but labs will busy trying to ascertain that.
There was a Prof on BBC earlier saying that the hysteria needs calming, he did however agree with travel bans now as a defence until the details of the variant are known.Chris Whitty the UK cmo is of the opinion that this is actually less dangerous than the delta variant and widespread scepticism that it can jump the vaccine anyway, hopefully this is looking like a damp squib.
I have no problem with them imposing precautionary travel bans on the affected african countries once they dont start jumping to reimpose general travel bans in Europe.
Also a concern that the government or nphet will use this as an excuse to impose more restrictions generally or to close down hospitality again. However I think the money issue is becoming much more important now, the government know they cannot afford to restrict the economy anymore after spending 40billion euros already on Covid
But the whole of the EU has imposed travel bans, I think now there is enough evidence to at least get ready, hopefully it's not as dangerous as feared but labs will busy trying to ascertain that.
The Belgium case has been traced to a person flying in from Egypt.
Last year Europe was very slow in preventing the original variant from getting into Italy and we all know what happened.
Travel bans are a blunt instrument but no government is going to sit idly by and do nothing.
Biontech and Pfizer and the other vaccine manufacturers are already studying the new variant and we should have some indication of how transmisable it is and how it affects the vaccines in 2 weeks
If anything the rollout of boosters will increase but we need to wait for the data, the main concern apparently is the mutations on the spike protein of the virus have increased and it's not known what the effects are.
It might be nothing but early evidence is suggesting higher transmission.
I believe they said the efficacy was the same but they recognized that it wanes over time thus the booster.Here is a question that I can't find the answer to. Pfizer have said they will have a new version of the vaccine within 100 days if needed. Why didn't they create a new version for Delta variant? As fas as I know we are still using the vaccine created for Alpha variant.
Not making accusations or starting conspiracies. Just occurred to me.
I believe they said the efficacy was the same but they recognized that it wanes over time thus the booster.
Apparently the virus DNA isn't that complex but the spike protein that is uses to infect us,can and does mutate, but some of those mutations do not harm us and the piece of the spike that r infects us was the same in both Alpha and Delta and that's the piece the vaccines nullify.
This is from memory so don't take it as fact.
Fair points but by limiting numbers maybe it will give contact tracing more chance with the cases identified so far.The whole world has imposed travel bans even though the WHO advise against them. South Africa have done the world a favour with the work they did identifying and reporting the variant. The world responded by cutting off a number of African Countries. It is an emotive response that is not backed by science.
South Africa has 3,500 cases of covid with a population of 59m people. There has been a large increase in the past 7 days which could be due to the variant but they don't know. South Africa also only has 40% of their population vaccinated so we have no idea how effective the vaccines are against this variant.
Thousands of people have arrived in Europe in the past week alone. This variant did not appear yesterday. Travel bans just delude people that we can stop this from spreading. We can't. All the travel ban will do is make the next country who identifies a variant of concern very reluctant to report it.
The case in Belgium was detected in a woman who traveled from Egypt through Turkey. So how is the ban on African Countries effective in that case? She was also unvaccinated, presented with symptoms and tested positive 11 days after she arrived back. So she could easily have caught it locally and they admit that. They don't know. Also none of her household have so far tested positive.
Of course we should be concerned. Of course we should introduce restrictions and increased surveillance but blanket travel bans don't work. And we need to give them time to figure out what is happening.
Small point, but the virus doesn't have DNA. It has RNA. The mRNA vaccine specifically targets the Protein spike that allows the virus to break the hosts cell membrane so mutations to that are, I would think, worrying.Apparently the virus DNA isn't that complex but the spike protein that is uses to infect us,can and does mutate,
My bad RNA ,should have proof read. Delta's spike had 10 mutations from Alpha but the vaccines still had relatively good results especially on deaths, This variant has 30 mutations and the question of whether it can " vaccine escape " is still unknown.Small point, but the virus doesn't have DNA. It has RNA. The mRNA vaccine specifically targets the Protein spike that allows the virus to break the hosts cell membrane so mutations to that are, I would think, worrying.
I sound really picky now but there have been over 12,000 identified mutations of Covid19. Mutations that have a material impact on behaviour are called Variants. There are over 4000 of those. The major Variants are called Strains. there's been 5 of them.My bad RNA ,should have proof read. Delta's spike had 10 mutations from Alpha but the vaccines still had relatively good results especially on deaths, This variant has 30 mutations and the question of whether it can " vaccine escape " is still unknown.
I thought it was more but yeah mutations will continue to happen, but it's the mutations that can affect us are the ones that we need to understand and try and control. In this situation the spike all other mutations appear harmless.... for now.I sound really picky now but there have been over 12,000 identified mutations of Covid19. Mutations that have a material impact on behaviour are called Variants. There are over 4000 of those. The major Variants are called Strains. there's been 5 of them.
It must be kind of hard to listen to though, for those people in the Amazon and elsewhere, when we start telling them not to cut down their forests. The obvious retort is "where the hell are your forests?"stop encroaching on parts of the natural world we shouldn't be in.
But the so called "poorer " countries have all the resources that the western world needs and until some kind of equity is found the exploitation will continue.It must be kind of hard to listen to though, for those people in the Amazon and elsewhere, when we start telling them not to cut down their forests. The obvious retort is "where the hell are your forests?"
It's a bit rich for is to tell poor people that they can't have what we have because it's damaging the environment and causing diseases to spread to humans. I don't see us volunteering to have far less, or even making a material change in our behaviour, in order to facilitate those changes we are insisting they make.
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