From:
slider@anashram.com
Scientific advisers have warned ministers they believe the new variant of COVID-19 spreads more quickly than previous strains, Sky News understands.
It is expected the SAGE advisory group will be convened on Monday to work
up a series of recommendations for how Tier 3 restrictions could be strengthened in light of the increased transmissibility of the new strain.
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-new-coronavirus-strain-spreading-faster-than-previous-variant-government-scientists-warn-ministers-12166858
But according to reports in the Telegraph and The Sun, senior ministers
met late into the night on Friday to discuss whether action may need to be taken more swiftly.
Both newspapers suggest this could include travel restrictions being
imposed on the South East and London, with a news conference to announce
such measures potentially coming as early as Saturday.
The government is yet to issue any response to the reports.
It is understood the government's scientific advisers do not see any
evidence the new strain causes more serious disease, or would be resistant
to current vaccines.
However, there is concern that the announcement of effective vaccines in
recent weeks may have had a negative impact on compliance with rules,
including self-isolation requirements.
A member of the scientific advisory panel earlier told Sky News the
existing tier system in England did not appear to be effective in
preventing the increase in cases, and predicted tighter measures would be needed.
Professor John Edmunds said: "I think we are going to have to look at
these measures and perhaps tighten them up, we really will. It's a
horrible thing to have to say but we are in quite a difficult position."
The identification of the "new variant" of COVID-19 - which is believed to
be causing the faster spread in the South East - was announced by Health Secretary Matt Hancock this week.
More than 1,000 cases of the strain had been found, "predominantly in the
south of England", Mr Hancock told the House of Commons.
He said the new variant had been spreading faster than the existing strain
of coronavirus and is believed to be fuelling the "very sharp, exponential rises" in cases across the South East.
But he sought to downplay fears, saying there was currently no evidence
that the new variant would not respond to the COVID-19 vaccines being
rolled out across the country.
And, he said, there was "currently nothing to suggest that this variant is
more likely to cause serious disease".
The health secretary said the fast rate of the new spread could mean this variant becomes the most dominant nationwide.
"The best way to describe it is, imagine a giant oak tree, and then a
little branch that breaks off from that tree. Then that branch becomes the
main trunk and the main artery of that tree," he explained.
He added that government scientists were studying the new variant at its
Porton Down facility.
A spokesman for the prime minister said he was unable to comment
immediately on the reports of a potential emergency toughening of
restrictions.
Mr Johnson said on Friday he hoped that England would not need to go into
a third lockdown after Christmas, as a number of experts have warned is possible.
### - ohhh shit? here we go??
even worse: the virus itself has fought back! in that just like a
bacterial infection that responds to antibiotics, unless one completes the
full course of treatment there's then the clear risk of the infection
coming back even stronger than before because the more resistant aspects
of it - which took the longest to die off - are now the very same ones
that now multiply in force, all of them being also somewhat more resistant
to said antibiotics used to treat them as well!?
and which, imho, is now similarly the case with this emerging 'new
variant' that's been discovered to be even 'more' infectious than the
first??
the problem all along being the sheer infectiousness of covid-19 to begin
with in that it remains on surfaces for longer than average periods of
time, while, at the same time, tending to linger in infected people for a
more than average lengths of time too before they stop shedding it to
those around them! (one dude in china was shown to be infectious for a
total of 53 days for example!)
thus someone could catch it outside and bring it home and infect everyone
there over the next week or so, a worse case scenario thus requiring a
60-plus day lockdown in total for those persons to then be completely
clear of it, the initial 28-day lockdown here indeed falling far short of
this requirement!
add to this a newly emerging strain that's even 'more' infectious still
(they don't yet know if it's also more deadly as well) and this is now a
recipe for disaster??
'another' problem being that it's also currently unknown as to whether or
not this new variant will respond to the vaccines that have basically only
been designed for the first strain? this second strain being a superbug in infectious terms compared to the first!?
damn!
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global deaths from covid currently = 1.68 million based on 'official'
(riiight) figures...
so prolly a lot more then!
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: www.darkrealms.ca (1:229/2)