Scientists say strain of coronavirus dominant around the world is different than what was seen in Wu

[Judi Lynn]

Source: The Hill


BY JOHN BOWDEN - 07/02/20 09:55 PM EDT

A strain of the coronavirus that was first seen in Italy is now the dominant strain of the virus, a group of scientists said Thursday.

In an article published by the peer-reviewed science journal Cell, researchers working with the Sheffield COVID-19 Genomics Group announced that the new strain "has become the most prevalent form in the global pandemic."

The strain is different than what appeared in Wuhan, China, the city where the coronavirus is believed to have originated.

According to the science journal, tracking of the virus frequency revealed a prevalence of the dominant strain, labeled G614, that took over the prevalence of D614, the original strain.

Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/public-global-health/505762-scientists-say-strain-of-coronavirus-dominant-around

[PSPS]

1. All the current strains have enough similarities that proposed vaccines will work against them.

[James48]

2. Or- maybe not.

No phase III trials yet on ANY vaccines. Who knows if they even will be able to make a vaccine that works? We’re still unable to find /make an AIDS vaccine- I won’t believe a Covid-19 vaccine exists until I see hard data showing one works against ANY of the strains out there.

[Xipe Totec]

3. Puts the lie to the Kung Flu talking point. nt

[Dopers_Greed]

4. Even if it mutated, it still originated in China

I don't like the racist names either, but that doesn't absolve China of any blame

[Xipe Totec]

5. Explain how the virus originating in China means China is culpable?

[Igel]

6. The origination? It's not culpable.

Which makes being obsessed over not being connected with it irrational. It's like the "San Francisco Earthquake" being deemed somehow -ist, as though using location that means the people of SF were responsible for it.

Nobody thinks called Ebola "Ebola" is racist because it's named after the place in Africa where it was documented.


However, it was fairly clear in December that there was a problem. Not 12/30. Weeks earlier.

It was fairly clear that it was spreading. Quickly. Between people. Weeks before it was acknowledged as a serious problem. And that Xi, not just local experts, know a week before he admitted it. Of course, there was that Party event during the week when he kept that embarrassment to himself.

When countries wanted to block travel from the area? China said "racist" and the chorus in much of the world promptly chanted "racist!" Of course, some of the world flipped China the bird, and paid for it with huge death tolls. Taiwan. South Korea. Thailand. Vietnam. All countries which, actually, implemented a travel ban as nearly the first step, a day or two after the official announcement on 1/3 or 1/4, and managed to ramp up their countermeasures (sometimes in draconian ways) before many infected people arrived on their territory.

As for much of the overt racist/ethnist rhetoric, most of it's just trolling. Once you know somebody or group doesn't like being called a name, you can either obey that person and bow to their demands for instant compliance, be courteous but simply say that you're not intending offense and the linguistic authoritarianism is misplaced (and perhaps talk it through), or you can double down and use the same language (or innovate even worse language) for the sake of trolling and being mockingly offensive. Trump and other lowlifes like the mocking, trolling approach that says how much they like being bullies. (Lots of that in current American discourse.)

[soryang]

7. South Korea implemented a limited travel ban on travelers from Hubei Feb 4 nt.

[EllieBC]

8. Yes except I think

no one cared because of their proximity to China. I think a lot of people do not realize how mobile the world is now. More people travel internationally than ever before which means more disease spread.

It would have been smart to shut down all travel everywhere. Call it racist or call it what it should have been which is virus isolation. Of course no one knew how bad it was because China wasn’t being very transparent.

[soryang]

9. South Korean citizens already in China or anywhere else can come back

The Korean citizens living in Wuhan had already come back before the Chinese shut Wuhan down on Jan. 27. By that time, the Shincheonji cult members in Wuhan had already brought the virus to Taegu.

The Koreans implemented strict screening and quarantine protocols at their international airports, and other entry points with mandatory quarantines for foreign travelers from known hot spots.

"no one cared?" look at the numbers in S.Korea, compared to here. No one cared here in the US.

[EllieBC]

10. By "no one cared"

I meant no cared that they were shutting their border. There wasn’t a knee jerk reaction to shout “racism” at SK for doing that.

[soryang]

12. They didn't shut their border

They imposed a mandatory quarantine on travelers from abroad.

[Dopers_Greed]

11. The Chinese government tried to cover it up

The initial outbreak was way worse than they let on.

If their official case and death numbers were accurate, there would have been no need to weld people's apartment doors shut

Also this is just anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt, but people were actually dropping dead in the streets at the height of the outbreak. This is from a friend who traveled to China several times for work prior to the pandemic.

[LanternWaste]

14. Much as US government has been doing since March

The difference being only that of degrees rather than of agenda or narrative.

Lysenkoism, like a virus, does not recognize imaginary lines on a map.

[Dopers_Greed]

15. There's no arguing that the US's response has been piss poor.

But the reason is that half the country is working to contain it, while the other half couldn't give a f#$%.

We are not actively cooking the virus numbers, and censoring media and doctors.

[Xipe Totec]

16. Judging by the numbers of infections, it's the American Flu

We have nobody to blame but ourselves. Blaming the Chinese is just a pretext to avoid blaming Trump.

[EllieBC]

17. Even our government screwed up.

Patty Hajdu, our federal minister of health, likened questioning China’s claims to spreading conspiracy theories. They were fine with doing nearly nothing until mid March.

I don’t know if it’s fear of China or genuine naïveté but it seems like a lot of countries were shocked.

[mpcamb]

13. The infection source for the USA was Europe. Italy and Spain were hard hit

and half a million people came into eastern US airports in February. East Coast cities got it first and worst especially in places where there was busy international traffic arriving.