New strain stuff.....

[MistressoftheDarkSide]

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/18/boris-johnson-calls-crisis-meeting-to-discuss-response-to-new-covid-strain

So,it's just a variant, nothing to see here, blah blah blah..... I'm pretty sanguine about this stuff but dropping this late at night as a headline right now..... I'm getting mightily pissed off with the uncertainty and the subtle fear mongering......

Any thoughts?

I think the fact that you could still transmit having had the vaccine needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

Studies in mice showed one of the mutations (N501Y) leads to increased ability to bind end enter cells

That's the argument for why fewer children get infected so it may be more virulent among kids?

@DecemberDiana

I think the fact that you could still transmit having had the vaccine needs to be shouted from the rooftops.

I know that a nurse who's had her first dose of the vaccine has been told she should carry on wearing her mask, distance and wash hands as before. But I don't know if everyone has. It should be, at least, told to people as they are jabbed.

My friend in health service mentioned she was happy to get the vaccine as shed be protecting her patients..

There's every possibility that the vaccines are going to increase R due to increased asymptomatic transmission and people thinking they're safe because they've been vaccinated or their contact has. It has the makings of a supreme shit show.

It doesn’t really matter if the cases increase though - as long as they don’t translate to hospitalisations and deaths. If the more vulnerable are protected through vaccination then those numbers should decrease. Also, by vaccinating health workers we’ll hopefully reduce staff shortages in hospitals etc!

It's not just the elderly and clinically vulnerable ending up in hospitals though - if the case rate gets high enough then we could probably fill the hospitals with healthy seeming 40 year olds.

I'd like to go into hospital to have an op I've been waiting for but it will be MORE risky for me if some staff are complacent.

I sincerely doubt that. Yes, there will be some younger, healthier people that end up in hospital but no, for the vast majority of younger people with no underlying conditions this virus is very mild.

@QueenStromba

It's not just the elderly and clinically vulnerable ending up in hospitals though - if the case rate gets high enough then we could probably fill the hospitals with healthy seeming 40 year olds.

Case rates would need to be extremely high for that to happen.

Yes, I know, long covid, somone on MN had a 40 year old friend who ran marathons and got extremely ill with covid, but the vast majority of healthy young people only suffer a mild illness.

The difference in hospitalisation rate between age groups isn't as marked as the death rate.

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-age.html

[quote QueenStromba]The difference in hospitalisation rate between age groups isn't as marked as the death rate.

www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-age.html[/quote]
Still very significant though.

Gosh, never started a thread that's ended up with so many posts before - and thanks to all the great people explaining so much so well. Particularly appreciative of the necklace explanation -that was great and very informative as I'm quite a visual person ( and I like beads).

So when I started this, I was in my cups and on my last nerve to a degree. My mildish hangover has over-ridden some of that, and by the time it wears off I'll be in resignation mode again no doubt, which is preferable to V for Vendetta mode......

I'll be keeping half an eye on it all today, - thanks again to all posters

It’s so refreshing to have someone like everythingthelighttouches explain the actual ‘science’ in an intelligent but accessible way.
It’s miles apart from the pseudo stuff that gets regurgitated on here so often by people trying to look clever.

@MistressoftheDarkSide IMO it’s the best thread I have read about coronavirus I have read on MN. And I have read a lot of them since the beginning. So refreshing to have actual scientists explaining

So Chris Whitty says the new strain is more contagious but no evidence to suggest it's more virulent or that it evades the vaccines...yet.

@IcedPurple

So Chris Whitty says the new strain is more contagious but no evidence to suggest it's more virulent or that it evades the vaccines...yet.

Please be the case.

Do the words contagious and virulent mean different things? I thought they were the same.

Ah ok online dictionary helped!

Yes I learnt the meaning of virulent today as well!

Phew, glad it's not just me!

My mental image of the word is linked to viral as in, spreads virally. But that's from a level biology in 1993 not t'internet.

Great posts everything especially bead one

“ Do the words contagious and virulent mean different things?”

No.

Contagious is the virus component which leads to it being transmitted. Remember that we also can influence how easily it is transmitted by our behaviour (masks, SD).

Virulence is about how the virus leads to disease.

Oops!!

So sorry. I meant YES contagious and virulence mean different hints.

Sorry for the confusion.

So there's a Tier 4 to try to combat the spread of this new variant.