From: slider@anashram.com

Fears as Kent Covid strain mutates AGAIN: Scientists warn 'worrying' development in 11 Bristol cases could make variant that is widespread in
UK more immune to vaccines

The Kent Covid variant has started to mutate further to become more like
the one that evolved in South Africa in what scientists have dubbed a
'worrying development' that could make vaccines less effective.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9213535/Coronavirus-Mutations-South-African-variant-appearing-cases-caused-Kent-strain.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ico=taboola_feed_desktop_news

One of the key mutations on the South African and Brazilian variants
appear to make the virus more able to resist immunity that has been
developed by past infection or from the current vaccines.

And this mutation has now been found at least 11 times in different cases
of people infected with the Kent variant, Public Health England revealed, raising fears it could become a permanent feature of the British strain.

Both the Kent and South African variants already share one mutation, named N501Y, which makes the virus spread faster. And if this mutation, named
E484K, sticks around as well the variants could become extremely similar.

E484K has been concerning scientists because it changes the shape of the virus's outer spike protein in a way that makes it difficult for the body
to recognise it if it is only used to looking for older versions of the
virus without the mutation.

This could raise the risk of reinfection or reduce how well vaccines work
— but top Government advisers insist jabs should still be effective. The jabs, however, have been made to specifically target an older version of
the virus that didn't have the mutation, meaning that major changes to the virus might make it less able to spot and fix to it.

SAGE adviser Professor Calum Semple suggested today that the risk of the
Kent variant – and other versions of the virus – continuing to evolve was 'inevitable' and 'will occur in time', and this mutation would likely be
part of that.

Speaking about the threat, Professor Ravi Gupta, an infectious diseases
expert at Cambridge University, said: 'The number of sequences is low at present, though enhanced surveillance is being undertaken by PHE. There
may be more cases out there given how high transmission has been. We need
to continue vaccinating and drive down transmission.'

The worrying development comes as local authorities in eight parts of the country today began mass community testing to try and weed out the South African variant after it was found in 11 unconnected cases.

Council, police and fire officials will go door to door dropping off Covid testing kits in parts of Surrey, Walsall, London, Kent, Hertfordshire and Lancashire as Health Secretary Matt Hancock warned last night 'we need to
come down on it hard and we will'.

Scientists have voiced confusion about the sudden panic over the South
African variant, with SAGE's Professor Andrew Hayward saying the newly identified cases were the 'tip of the iceberg' and a 'big
under-estimation' of the true number already in the UK, and Leicester University's Dr Julian Tang said its spread was 'not surprising'.

PHE scientists revealed they had found the E484K mutation in the Kent
variant in a paper published yesterday.

The report said the mutation, best known for being the most worrying part
of the South African and two Brazilian variants, had been found in 11
cases of the Kent strain up to January 26.

It said: 'Preliminary information suggests more than one acquisition
event,' which means the cases were not all part of the same outbreak and
the mutation had sprung up randomly on multiple occasions in different
places.

The coronavirus is mutating all the time as a result of genetic errors
when it multiplies, and the changes that make it able to spread more
quickly or to survive longer inside the human body are the ones that are
likely to stick around.

They will be passed on to future generations if they give the virus a
survival advantage, and the ability to spread faster and keep spreading
for longer will help versions of the virus with that mutation to become dominant by overtaking slower, weaker versions.

Experts said it was likely that the E484K mutation had appeared in cases
of the Kent variant by chance, although it was possible someone had been infected simultaneously with the South African strain.

PHE's report suggested that, by mid-January, the Kent variant was
accounting for up to 90 per cent of coronavirus cases in the community
across England, with this rising to a possible 95-97 per cent in London,
the East and South East.

The risk of the Kent variant picking up the mutation found in the South
African strain is that it will be equally fast-spreading and also more
likely to reinfect people and to make vaccines less effective, scientists
say.

Studies have found that people who have had Covid in the past or have
received one of the current vaccines have significantly fewer antibodies
that are able to tackle the South African variant, compared to the Kent
variant or other strains of the virus. But antibodies are only one part of
the immune system — and it is not clear whether T cell immunity is
affected.

And this level of genetic analysis, to work out how often the Kent variant
is developing the immune-resistant mutation, is detailed scientific work meaning it can only spot the problem after it has become widespread.

Speaking about efforts to contain the South African variant, SAGE and
Liverpool University infectious disease expert Professor Calum Semple said
on BBC Radio 4 this morning: 'It's incredibly important to snuff it out
where you can and seek it out where you can, and use that time of
suppression to maximise vaccination within the population.

'But there is an inevitability with these viruses, particularly with these mutations that we're now seeing arising spontaneously in Brazil and in the South African strain.

'The mutation of most concern, which we call the E484K has also occurred spontaneously in the new Kent strain in parts of the country, too.

'So that, and the other mutations that can occur, will occur in time but
it's very important to take every opportunity now to catch the so-called
South African variant, suppress it, keep it down and allow the vaccine
schedule to get ahead of it.'

Other experts said the discovery of this mutation was not a surprise
because the virus is reproducing billions of times a day and the change is clearly an advantage for it.

Dr Julian Tang, a virologist at the University of Leicester, said: 'This updated PHE report on [mentions] the acquisition of the E484K mutation – which is a worrying development, though not entirely unexpected.'

He explained that it could have happened because the same cells had been infected with two different variants of the coronavirus, but said that
this was rare.

Cases of people being infected with two variants of coronavirus at the
same time have been reported in Brazil, and experts say it is certainly possible but not particularly likely when there is one dominant variant of
the virus, as there is with Covid in the UK.

It was more likely, Dr Tang said, that the evolution had happened randomly
each time through natural selection.

He added: 'This is another reason to follow the Covid-19 restrictions more strictly – otherwise not only can the virus continue to spread, it can
also evolve.

'Unfortunately, the lack of control of these different variants in the UK
may lead this population to become a melting pot for different emerging variants – so we really need to reduce our contact rates to reduce the opportunities for viral spread and replication to reduce the speed with
which these different virus variants can evolve.

'Closing borders and restricting travel may help a little with this, but
there is now probably already a sufficient critical mass of virus-infected people within the endemic UK population to allow this evolution to proceed
– as this report suggests – so we really need to stick to the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions as much as possible.'

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist at the University of Reading, said the
cases were 'ultimately no surprise' and added: 'It does not mean that this mutation is present in all versions of this variant.'

The worry about the South African mutation is that it will make
reinfection more likely and reduce the efficacy of vaccines because it
changes the virus's spike protein in a way that makes older antibodies
worse at attacking it.

Antibodies – substances made by the immune system – appear to be less able to recognise and attack viruses with the E484K mutation if they were made
in response to a version of the virus that didn't have the mutation.

Antibodies are extremely specific and can be outwitted by a virus that
changes radically, even if it is essentially the same virus.

South African academics found that 48 per cent of blood samples from
people who had been infected in the past did not show an immune response
to the new variant. One researcher said it was 'clear that we have a
problem'.

Vaccine makers, however, have tried to reassure the public that their
vaccines will still work well and will only be made slightly less
effective by the variant.

Concerns about new variants emerging in the UK were ramped up yesterday by
the Government when it launched a frantic bid to contain South African
strain after it was recently spotted in 11 people who had not been to the country.

From today health officials joined forces with local police, councillors
and firefighters to visit homes in Woking in Surrey, Walsall in the West Midlands, as well as parts of London, Kent, Hertfordshire and Lancashire,
to offer residents a swab.

The discovery of those 11 cases suggests there may be hundreds more unidentified infections. Matt Hancock called for residents in the eight affected areas in England to stay home and take ‘extra special precautions’.

‘We need to come down on it hard and we will,’ warned the Health
Secretary, adding: 'It's a big effort getting this new variant…
essentially finding every single case of it, that is the goal.'

A briefing document described the plan as ‘a two-week sprint’ ordered by
Mr Hancock in ‘an attempt at eradication of the new variant if at all possible’.

Labour said the development was deeply worrying and showed that quarantine controls for international arrivals were not working.

SAGE experts warned the government to close borders to stop the spread of
the South African variant of coronavirus weeks ago, it emerged last night,
only for Boris Johnson to ignore their recommendations.

(snip almost endless article geez...)

### - nada ever works out easy does it lol, plus the way it's going it's
never gonna end as this virus mutates and effectively fights back against
all our medical measures and lockdowns, our ostensibly bungling approach
to dealing with it actually making the situation worse??

that if we'd jumped on this damn thing from the beginning instead of
letting it develop - over a year! - into a situation basically one can no longer 'do' anything about, we might have been fine, as it is though we've really screwed things up and this shit is remaining ahead of the curve at
every stage!

so what's left for us now then eh? endlessly increasing worse-case
scenarios??

the reason we're in this situation being because they tried to balance infection rates with keeping the economy open, when in hindsight they
should have just locked the whole planet down for maybe 4 months when it
all first started!

all we've got forward to look to now being endless start/stop lockdowns,
ever new rounds of booster-shots to deal with ever new strains, people
being infected with more than one strain at the same time, closed borders everywhere, no international travel, economies going pop one by one, populations beginning to fall...

it's now the 'human race' that has to evolve in order to survive this shit!

i mean, who'd have thought that the end of civilisation would have been
brought about by a killer-version of the common cold eh?

meanwhile, poor old captain tom (the 100 year old ww2 vet dude who raised
30+ million for the health services here recently) has just died from the virus...

geez we couldn't even look after him??

total global lockdown for months is the only way forward left now, and
they're only just beginning to catch on to that!?

so is the human race stupid or what???

well duh! :D

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
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