🦠NEW VARIANT—a new #SARSCoV2 variant C.1.2 just identified in South Africa & several countries, with concerns it could be more infectious and evade vaccines. #C12 also has mutation rate that is nearly **twice as fast** as the rate of the other variants.🧵 jpost.com/health-science…
2) Study comes from a new preprint by South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases. ➡️The new variant has "mutated substantially" and is more mutations away from the original virus than any other variant detected so far worldwide”—wow! ⚠️ medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
3) What does that mean above? It means that #C12 variant has somehow mutated so fast and far that it is now the FURTHEST MUTATED variant found to date! It has mutated the greatest genetic distance from the original Wuhan 1.0 strain—and implies potential troubles for 1.0 vaccines.
4) it gets worse with #C12… it has a 1.7x to 1.8x faster mutation rate than the average of all other variants! The authors note this coincides with the emergence pattern of other really bad VOC variants. medrxiv.org/content/10.110…
5) Let’s visualize how much farther and faster the new #C12 variant is - it is much much faster in mutation rate and it has gained the farthest distance from Wuhan 1.0 strain (denoted by “0” distance). This means #C12 is the most mutant of all mutant variants found to date!
6) “The study found consistent increases in the number of C.1.2 genomes in South Africa on a monthly basis, rising from 0.2% of genomes sequenced in May to 1.6% in June and then to 2% in July, similar to increases seen with Beta & Delta variants there.” ➡️Pattern recognition 🔔?
7) To be clear, the mutation rate of #C12 being “nearly twice as fast” is how quickly it gained mutations in a short period. It won’t necessarily continue to - but it certainly did in the time of window that it took to emerge.
8) “More than half (about 52%) of the mutations in the spike region of the C.1.2 sequences have previously been seen in other VOCs and VOIs. The mutations N440K and Y449H, which have been associated with escape from certain antibodies, have also been noticed in C.1.2 sequences.”
9) “The scientists stressed that the combination of these mutations, as well as changes in other parts of the virus, likely help the virus evade antibodies and immune responses, including in patients who have already been infected with the Alpha or Beta variants.” 👀 oh boy.
10) Why is #C12 worrisome for immune escape? Here are many technical mutation details why. Also, I highlighted the worry about #C12’s mutations on the virus furin cleavage site- which helps the virus bind human cells faster. Bottomline—The authors are worried.
11) This #C12 is obviously a very fast moving variant. We don’t know exact transmission yet or severity or vaccine efficacy yet. But the best advice that will serve us well is to take the PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE as the approach—“move fast”!!!
12) Until we know more, let’s follow the damn precautionary principle to heart — and STOP these crazy mass gatherings please! For the love of god, or for the love of our kids… please… two variants emerging in one day is not a good trend.
13) UPDATE—I have just gotten direct confirmation from my @WHO colleagues that they are investigating and following up on the new #C12 variant from South Africa. ➡️Also note that C12 is already detected in England, Switzerland, Portugal, Mauritius, China, and New Zealand! 🚨
14) Observation—Delta came from India (with very few vaccines but high past infection rates), and so did #C12 from South Africa which also has a very low 8% fully vaccinated rate, but large past waves. Hence these new super variants did *NOT* come from high vaccinated countries.
15) Thus, for those claiming vaccines are a major cause of these super bad variants—they are dead wrong. Unfettered spread of the coronavirus is what gives the virus more chances to practice in our bodies and learn to adapt against a body with no ready vaxxed immunity.
16) DURATION infection really matters for variants to emerge. The longer it lingers, the more time it has to learn, adapt & develop new evasive mutations. But vaccines both lowers risk, and also SHORTENS INFECTION TIME! Ergo less risk of variants if vaxxed
17) Scientists in UK think what causes new sudden variants is often an immunocompromised person who doesn’t fight off the virus quickly & allows it to linger in their body for an extended period of time (more practice time). Also why vaccine boosters for immunocompromised key.
18) This variant-emergence problem in weak immunity persons is also what happened in Boston with one immunocompromised man who was highly infectious for 155 days before he died—and developed virus with 20 mutations during that time! This is why vaccines key to reduce this chance.
20) They also note the scientist note the “concerning constellation of mutations” that “are associated with increased transmissibility”’ these are the authors words, not my mine. I am not sensationalizing. #C12 is worrisome that @WHO is investigating too.
21) One of the key authors of the #C12 variant study is “worried” too. And no, it is not “nearly extinct” as some out there erroneously claim—the C1 lineage has actually been growing for some time. Even WHO is investigating further. Neutralization studies coming. Stay tuned. 🙏
Concerning—CDC now says that 42 states are seeing rising rates of #COVID19 again—with levels high or very high in 35 states (and rising). COVID wastewater levels have already surpassed last summer’s peak and climbing fast. #CovidIsNotOver cdc.gov/forecast-outbr…
2) Substantial 28% increase in one week. Question is how high it will go. It’s a new variant (mostly KP2 and KP3 and JN1), which are evasive against past infection and past vaccines.
A girl using cover name JANE DOE testified under oath at Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal trial that she was introduced to Trump by Jeffrey Epstein when she was 14 years old. Pass it on.
Trump’s name appears 7 times in Epstein’s latest files. They regularly called each other according to phone logs. Trump says Epstein is a “terrific guy”. And he traveled on flights, according to logs, to Epstein’s island multiple times.
3) THIS STUFF IS NEW—not old Epstein-Trump info. New information regarding Epstein's child trafficking activities was released 7/2/24. Documents from 2016 are now out of date and do not show the depth of Trump's dealings with Epstein... READ MORE:
Reminder—Trump had expressed executing people on many occasions while President, according to his own Attorney General. Now the Supreme Court has green lit any official act with full presidential immunity. Germany did the same in 1933. It turned out great.
2) If we ignore history, we are bound to repeat it. How Germany became Nazi Germany in 1933….
📍 The New York Times Is Failing Its Readers Badly on Covid
📌“Example of ‘science opinion’ run amok in the [NY Times] is a piece… by Zeynep Tufekci, a commentator with no training in biological science or epidemiology… ➡️Tufekci plays into the hands of the anti-science politicians who now seek vengeance on the flimsiest of grounds.”
2) “Tufekci also adds to the ongoing pile-on about whether the directive to maintain a distance of six feet from others was needed. Although the precise distance was indeed somewhat arbitrary, there was no possibility of obtaining hard data in the relevant time frame. The six-foot distance was a reasonable assumption based on public health history, and the practice of social distancing for other respiratory pathogens, particularly those spread by droplets. It was also adopted in multiple other countries, for the same reasons.”
3) “The problem here isn’t that Tufekci is questioning the evidentiary basis of the six-foot rule—science and public health cannot progress if we don’t evaluate the results of our work. But that progress is more effective when grounded in good-faith inquiry, rather than the kinds of attacks Tufekci levels against government scientists for doing their best in desperate circumstances. This only serves to bolster the forces who seek to destroy the US public health infrastructure, not make it better.
Tufekci also leaves the impression that she alone realized SARS-CoV-2 was airborne early on. In fact, the debate about transmission was fast and furious within the scientific community at that time”
⚠️Whooping cough has smashed all records in UK🇬🇧 with barely any serious govt actions. These are NEW CASES PER WEEK, not cumulative. Each week smashing previous. Other countries rising too amid anti-vax. Pertussis is also airborne!
3) Whooping cough is also extremely contagious. For up to 3 weeks. With UK govt advising staying home for 3 full weeks if no antibiotic treatment. How many people being told that and doing that?