New Covid variant *title edited by MNHQ at OP's request*

[Wingingthis]

Can anyone talk some sense about how dangerous this is or is it just the media over exaggerating?

Well I just hope this is not the warnings from people like Geert Vanden Bossche coming true - who warned about the problems with mass vaccination in the middle of a pandemic with a vaccine that does not stop transmission or infection.

Here we go again...

Frankly we should only hear about all these new variants once scientists have some concrete data/evidence/facts and once/if government has decided on new measures (such as stopping flights).

All the media scaremongering and speculating and arm chair experts is pointless and harmful.

All it does is either alarm people or fuel the conspiracy theories because right on cue every time we have a vaccine push (currently the booster) another scary variant pops up....

I have had my 3 vaccines and at this stage I am done with the endless panicking.

All viruses mutate, Covid is here to stay, most people survive the virus, vaccine or no vaccine.

Enough with the constant hysteria.

@hamstersarse

Well I just hope this is not the warnings from people like Geert Vanden Bossche coming true - who warned about the problems with mass vaccination in the middle of a pandemic with a vaccine that does not stop transmission or infection.

Genuinely though - what was the alternative?

@hamstersarse

Well I just hope this is not the warnings from people like Geert Vanden Bossche coming true - who warned about the problems with mass vaccination in the middle of a pandemic with a vaccine that does not stop transmission or infection.

What’s the alternative though?

@ElectraBlue

Here we go again...

Frankly we should only hear about all these new variants once scientists have some concrete data/evidence/facts and once/if government has decided on new measures (such as stopping flights).

All the media scaremongering and speculating and arm chair experts is pointless and harmful.

All it does is either alarm people or fuel the conspiracy theories because right on cue every time we have a vaccine push (currently the booster) another scary variant pops up....

I have had my 3 vaccines and at this stage I am done with the endless panicking.

All viruses mutate, Covid is here to stay, most people survive the virus, vaccine or no vaccine.

Enough with the constant hysteria.

We have stopped flights so ok for this one?

I would prefer if posts didn’t spiral as they do on some threads but then I think don’t panic too so I agree with that part

I should add for the lockdown lovers. Not a chance. You can stay in your home for the rest of your life. I am done with lockdowns too.

@ElectraBlue

I should add for the lockdown lovers. Not a chance. You can stay in your home for the rest of your life. I am done with lockdowns too.

Ok.

How do you square that with the fact we are still in a pandemic?

What happens if another pandemic occurs in a few years time?

Why get to aggressive?

@ElectraBlue

I should add for the lockdown lovers. Not a chance. You can stay in your home for the rest of your life. I am done with lockdowns too.

Me too, not doing another lockdown

www.geertvandenbossche.org/

If what he is saying is true, this really could be terrible from March

The alternative - anti-virals - mass programmes of anti-virals.

In the interests of balance, this is the type of rebuttal to what Bossche warned (he has mainly been de-platformed obviously too)

www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19-critical-thinking-pseudoscience/doomsday-prophecy-dr-geert-vanden-bossche

This is a better rebuttal of Bossche

www.deplatformdisease.com/blog/addressing-geert-vanden-bossches-claims

[quote bumbleymummy]@Largethighsbadeyes yeah, I was just thinking that post sounded almost gleeful. some people just like to wallow in misery it seems[/quote]

That poster isn't, let's say, fully serious. There's nothing gleeful about her at all.

Sajid Javid saying this variant found in South Africa, Botswana, Hong Kong and Israel could “pose a substantial risk to public health” is pretty worrying tbh.

Israel is the most surprising one, given their vaccination status.

Stock market has pretty much crashed. Feel there is something afoot with this.

@ElectraBlue

Here we go again...

Frankly we should only hear about all these new variants once scientists have some concrete data/evidence/facts and once/if government has decided on new measures (such as stopping flights).

All the media scaremongering and speculating and arm chair experts is pointless and harmful.

All it does is either alarm people or fuel the conspiracy theories because right on cue every time we have a vaccine push (currently the booster) another scary variant pops up....

I have had my 3 vaccines and at this stage I am done with the endless panicking.

All viruses mutate, Covid is here to stay, most people survive the virus, vaccine or no vaccine.

Enough with the constant hysteria.

So ... fingers in ears and la, la, la?

What ElectraBlue said.

With bells on

@ElectraBlue

I should add for the lockdown lovers. Not a chance. You can stay in your home for the rest of your life. I am done with lockdowns too.

Doesn’t sound aggressive to me, and me too.

Tbh, the stock market going up or down doesn't prove anything other than that some people feel spooked, possibly without any cause, we won't know for a while.

Personally, I find it a massive relief that the Government are acting/ poised to take further action to curb the problem asap.

Red list is sensible in this situation.

I can't be bothered to worry until we have more solid evidence there is something to worry about.

@hamstersarse if it has already spread to israel (and the people who got it were vaccinated too), I think it probably is in London even if we don't know it. There are daily flights from Johannesburg to London. Tel Aviv Airport is far less busy than Heathrow Airport.

But apparently a flight from the most affected province was allowed off the plane as normal this morning - I thought flights were suspended until red list rules come into force?!

twitter.com/adamjschwarz/status/1464150235714932742?s=21

Personally am not worried. Prof Vincent Racaniello, of Columbia University USA, is a virologist and teaches the subject. You can read to and listen to his thoughts on this new variant here:

dryburgh.com/vincent-racaniello-coronavirus-variant-voc-202012-01/

He is extremely pro-vax, for the record.

... right on cue every time we have a vaccine push (currently the booster) another scary variant pops up ...

Well spotted, ElectraBlue

[quote JanglyBeads]But apparently a flight from the most affected province was allowed off the plane as normal this morning - I thought flights were suspended until red list rules come into force?!

twitter.com/adamjschwarz/status/1464150235714932742?s=21[/quote]
From 12pm today afaik.

@CrunchyCarrot

Personally am not worried. Prof Vincent Racaniello, of Columbia University USA, is a virologist and teaches the subject. You can read to and listen to his thoughts on this new variant here:

dryburgh.com/vincent-racaniello-coronavirus-variant-voc-202012-01/

He is extremely pro-vax, for the record.

Umm that's a year old??

Sorry, that link up there was to a video re an earlier variant, but I listened to a Q&A session with Prof Racaniello a couple of days ago and he's basically saying the same thing about the latest variant.

I do think however from my own perspective that it's a good precaution to add those countries to our red list, just in case!

@lonelyplanet

The speed of increase in SA looks scary when you compare it to European countries who have been rising fast. The graph is log scale.

Except its not really comparible to Europe nor do we know its Nu driving it.

We know vaccination rates are much lower so that affects transmission rates.

Delta hit India first which is largely unvaccinated and they were never doing much testing. SA is doing much better with testing but still has problems with vaccination rates.

What we could be seeing is simply a reflection of this in data.

Without proper analysis I would caution against putting a graph of SA and anywhere with high vaccine rates together and blindly declaring it because of Nu.

I read earlier (though again I caution against taking this as gospel) that they haven't detected a Nu variant case in hospital in Johannesburg yet which is where this outbreak is biggest. That might just be timing / small numbers or it could be information which proves to be more significant.

We are still in the land of unknowns and speculation rather than evidencd based information.