Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #B1618
Most recents (4)
Have we reached to the peak of 2nd #Covid wave in India? May be, yes! Its already 2.5 months in to it. Most badly affected countries peaked within 1.5-3 months of onset of a new surge. Is it too early to comment? 1/ 
More interesting would be to see which way our curve goes: the UK/Israel or the US way! While both UK/Israel took 1.5-2 months to flatten their curves w/ strict lockdowns & aggressive vaccination, US had a long plateau (>3.5 months) 2/
However, there is heterogeneity in caseloads: While states like MH, UP, CG, PB, DL are showing ⬇️ in case load, some southern & eastern states (KA, KL, AP, TN, WB, ) still reporting cases in high numbers! What is driving Covid in these states? 3/ indiatoday.in/coronavirus-ou…
Dear Dr @drharshvardhan — you are unfit to be the Health Minister of India 🇮🇳.
Please RESIGN.
#COVID19India #COVID19
Please RESIGN.
#COVID19India #COVID19
2) meanwhile, in another country like Jordan 🇯🇴, their health minister resigned after just 7 people died from hospital losing oxygen. reuters.com/article/us-hea…
3) You’ve had many chances to tell the truth about what is happening. But you @drharshvardhan continue to dismiss and downplay.
So much misinformation and confusion about the circulating #SARSCoV2 variants in India. Leaving aside that the names are scientifically inaccurate, #B1618 ("Bengal variant") is NOT the #tripleMutant. I will try to summarize the basics in this thread.
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B.1.617: characterized by more than 15 mutations, it got dubbed the "double mutant" because of two spike mutations, L452R and E484Q, which were mutations of concern because of their immune escape properties, and possible high infectivity.
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What's more, there are several sequences of B.1.617 which don't have the E484Q mutation, now sampled in India and elsewhere, which means it's not even the OG "double mutant" anymore.
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I cry for the India 🇮🇳. Brutal epidemic ravaging the country, and hospitals are completely overwhelmed. A staggering 300,000 cases—and possibly 10x underdiagnosis means maybe ~3 million actual cases a day. #COVID19
2) FT thinks underdiagnosis is 10x in India. But some think it’s even higher...
3) By deaths alone, comparing cremations vs reported deaths, some areas have 24x higher underreport.
