Camacho Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 nbcnewyork.com The UK Has Identified a New COVID-19 Strain That Spreads More Quickly. Here's What They Know The U.K. has alerted the World Health Organization and will continue to analyze data on the new strain By Noah Higgins-Dunn, CNBC • Published December 19, 2020 • Updated 4 hours ago *England's top medical officer on Saturday announced that the U.K. has identified a new variant of the coronavirus that "can spread more quickly" than prior strains of the virus. *So far, a collection of evidence suggests the new strain "has a significant, substantial increase in transmissibility," Professor Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, said. *There's "no evidence" so far to suggest it causes more severe disease, more hospitalizations or affects coronavirus treatments and vaccines, he said. England's top medical officer on Saturday announced that the U.K. has identified a new variant of the coronavirus that "can spread more quickly" than prior strains of the virus, leading Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose fresh restrictions on parts of the nation to control its spread. "We're learning about it as we go, but we already know enough, more than enough, to be sure that we must act now," Johnson said during a press briefing on Saturday where he laid out fresh restrictions on London and other parts of England ahead of the Christmas holiday. "When the virus changes its method of attack, we must change our method of defense," Johnson said. The U.K. government announced the new coronavirus strain on Monday following an increase in cases in the southern and eastern parts of England. Just over 1,100 COVID-19 cases with the new variant had been identified as of Sunday, according to a statement from Public Health England. Now, it's thought that the new strain could be up to 70% more transmissible than the original strain of the disease, Johnson said on Saturday, adding that it appears to be driving the rapid spread of infections. Johnson called on residents to refrain from traveling and "stay local" to prevent the new strain from moving around the country and abroad. The United Kingdom is reporting roughly 24,061 new COVID-19 cases every day, based on a weekly average, which is a more than 40% increase compared with a week ago, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. "This is early data, and it's subject to review, but it's the best that we have at the moment and we have to act on information as we have it because this is now spreading very fast," Johnson said. Professor Chris Whitty, England's chief medical officer, said at the press briefing that "viruses mutate all the time." Seasonal influenza mutates every year, and there have already been other new variants of the coronavirus identified in countries like Spain, according to Public Health England. What needs to be answered is whether the new strain transmits more easily, makes people sicker and whether it changes the way someone's immune system responds to the virus if they were already infected or vaccinated, Whitty said. So far, a collection of evidence from genetic, frequency and laboratory studies suggests the new strain "has a significant, substantial increase in transmissibility," Whitty said. However, there's no evidenceso far to suggest that the new strain causes a higher death rate. Health officials believe the new variant first appeared in mid-September in London or Kent, and by the middle of November it's thought to have caused roughly 28% of cases in London and other parts of southeast England, Whitty said. Now those figures are much higher, he said. In London, data over the past week suggests the new variant has accounted for more than 60% of new cases, Whitty said. "So what this tells us is that this new variant not only moves fast, it is increased in its ability to transmit, but it's becoming the dominant variant. It is beating all the others in terms of transmission," he said. Yet there's "no evidence" it causes a more severe disease, more hospitalizations or "more trouble than the other virus," Whitty said. While there are reasons to suspect the new variant might alter someone's immune response to the disease, there's nothing to indicate that's the case so far, he said. "Our working assumption at the moment, from all of the scientists, is that the vaccine response should be adequate for this virus," he said. "That obviously needs to be looked at going forward, and we need to keep vigilant about this." The U.K. has alerted the World Health Organization and will continue to analyze data on the new strain. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apples388 Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 Yes and Christmas has been jancelled as well. When will this ever end honestly.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karbatal Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 We had in my region in Spain another new strain, super contagious. In end July and August we had 1.000 cases a day in a population of 1,4 million. Go figure. Fortunately it was not very deadly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VogueMusic Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 I believe this happened several times already here in the US - more contagious, but not necessarily more potent/deadly. Still scary though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carey Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 Good Twitter thread regarding this: Thankfully the scientific consensus is that the vaccine will still have efficacy on this strain of Covid so sit tight, things will improve over time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Confessit Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 15 minutes ago, Carey said: Good Twitter thread regarding this: Thankfully the scientific consensus is that the vaccine will still have efficacy on this strain of Covid so sit tight, things will improve over time. I pray this is the case but we simply don’t know yet until people are vaccinated on mass next year this strain could still defeat the vaccine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karbatal Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 EU countries are cancelling all flights coming from UK for the risk of the new strain. I guess all EU will have blocked UK travellers by midnight. UK says the new strain has left numbers "out of control" reporting 35.000 cases in a day. Yesterday they were 27.000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karbatal Posted December 20, 2020 Share Posted December 20, 2020 27 minutes ago, Confessit said: I pray this is the case but we simply don’t know yet until people are vaccinated on mass next year this strain could still defeat the vaccine. Experts say no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotos8 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 13 hours ago, karbatal said: EU countries are cancelling all flights coming from UK for the risk of the new strain. I guess all EU will have blocked UK travellers by midnight. UK says the new strain has left numbers "out of control" reporting 35.000 cases in a day. Yesterday they were 27.000. My opinion is that the numbers in the UK went up due to millions of people walking around and shopping with no distances and no masks ..Also it's not 100 percent sure that the vaccines are effective against the new strain .To say in 24 hours that there is no problem is irresponsible Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karbatal Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 46 minutes ago, sotos8 said: My opinion is that the numbers in the UK went up due to millions of people walking around and shopping with no distances and no masks ..Also it's not 100 percent sure that the vaccines are effective against the new strain .To say in 24 hours that there is no problem is irresponsible Why is it irresponsible? They say that the protein of the new variant is no significantly different of the other in terms of recognition of the vaccine "instructions" to make antibodies to fight. And they have studied virus and vaccines for years and decades. I feel irresponsible to spread fear of the vaccine not working. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotos8 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 I'm not calling you irresponsible ,i have to clear that up ..but experts .They are in such a hurry to declare it's effectiveness in the new strain .Here in Greece the experts say that probable it's not a problem but we have to wait and see .And if the vaccine is not effective against the new mutation it's very easy to produce a new more effective vaccine Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karbatal Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 43 minutes ago, sotos8 said: I'm not calling you irresponsible ,i have to clear that up ..but experts .They are in such a hurry to declare it's effectiveness in the new strain .Here in Greece the experts say that probable it's not a problem but we have to wait and see .And if the vaccine is not effective against the new mutation it's very easy to produce a new more effective vaccine Yes, I guess we have to wait and see. I didn't feel you were calling me irresponsible, and I didn't mean you about that "fear spreading". I meant that nowadays there's a very intentional effort in society to spread fear and anger, especially from mass media. Simply because it brings more clicks and views to news. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotos8 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 1 minute ago, karbatal said: Yes, I guess we have to wait and see. I didn't feel you were calling me irresponsible, and I didn't mean you about that "fear spreading". I meant that nowadays there's a very intentional effort in society to spread fear and anger, especially from mass media. Simply because it brings more clicks and views to news. Totally agreed , here we left without new bulletins for 2 days due to a strike and it was the best thing that happened to us in 2020 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sotos8 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Picadilly circus Dec 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
runa Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Let's just hope, in one of his mutation, the virus doesn't become more lethal. Fights between Canada and UK are suspended until further notice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonski43 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 They've closed the ports for two days and already talking of shortages of veg. But yes, they're still researching just how contagious this new strain is versus whether it's because people came out of lockdown and didn't take care. It's also showing up in Wales and Scotland apparently. From what they say, the vaccine still works. Things were looking positive with the vaccine but this has hit the country hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karbatal Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 1 hour ago, jonski43 said: They've closed the ports for two days and already talking of shortages of veg. But yes, they're still researching just how contagious this new strain is versus whether it's because people came out of lockdown and didn't take care. It's also showing up in Wales and Scotland apparently. From what they say, the vaccine still works. Things were looking positive with the vaccine but this has hit the country hard. Sadly there are already cases in several EU countries, which means this new strain will propagate soon. There's for example one case in Gibraltar and thousands of Spaniards work there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acko Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 On 12/20/2020 at 10:03 AM, Suedehead said: Yes and Christmas has been jancelled as well. When will this ever end honestly.. I don't mind the Christmas thing, but it is scary... with the air traffic being closed and Brexit... it feels like the start of another horrorthriller. I hope u r okay and everyone on this forum really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flip The Switch Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 The end is near. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karbatal Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 1 hour ago, Flip The Switch said: The end is near. She's coming with the clouds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karbatal Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 2 hours ago, acko said: I don't mind the Christmas thing, but it is scary... with the air traffic being closed and Brexit... it feels like the start of another horrorthriller. I hope u r okay and everyone on this forum really. At the end the important thing is if we or our dear ones are with us at the end of the year. The rest will be solved. Hugs and kisses to all in UK now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber-Raga Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Scary because we don’t know yet if the new version of the virus will also be contained/immunized by the vaccine. But then again, COVID had already mutated when the virus came from Asia to Europe and then went into the USA, one of which was more aggressive than the other. There have already been at least two different strains of this monstrosity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
promise to try Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 4 hours ago, karbatal said: Sadly there are already cases in several EU countries, which means this new strain will propagate soon. There's for example one case in Gibraltar and thousands of Spaniards work there. they should have closed the border! really, I don´t get the spanish politicians are doing with this last problem. The basque person responsible from handling the crisis has resigned, I guess he wanted to do some things and the politicians others Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karbatal Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 1 hour ago, promise to try said: they should have closed the border! really, I don´t get the spanish politicians are doing with this last problem. The basque person responsible from handling the crisis has resigned, I guess he wanted to do some things and the politicians others It's closed starting tomorrow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonski43 Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 1 hour ago, Cyber-Raga said: Scary because we don’t know yet if the new version of the virus will also be contained/immunized by the vaccine. But then again, COVID had already mutated when the virus came from Asia to Europe and then went into the USA, one of which was more aggressive than the other. There have already been at least two different strains of this monstrosity. They're pretty sure the vaccine still works as it was detected as early as September. It's just more contagious but no worse. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyber-Raga Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 47 minutes ago, jonski43 said: They're pretty sure the vaccine still works as it was detected as early as September. It's just more contagious but no worse. Exactly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flip The Switch Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 5 hours ago, karbatal said: She's coming with the clouds... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonski43 Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 I was speaking to a friend working on covid. The reason the UK identified this new contagious strain is that we're doing a lot of genome testing. This strain is probably in many other countries but we picked it up because of our testing. Update, the UK has identified ANOTHER even more contagious strain that's come in from South Africa now. Oh good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
promise to try Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 another one? number 3? hopefully is "only" more contagious but not as bad as the ones before Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karbatal Posted December 23, 2020 Share Posted December 23, 2020 1 hour ago, jonski43 said: I was speaking to a friend working on covid. The reason the UK identified this new contagious strain is that we're doing a lot of genome testing. This strain is probably in many other countries but we picked it up because of our testing. Update, the UK has identified ANOTHER even more contagious strain that's come in from South Africa now. Oh good. Nobody said it was"born" in the UK. It's there were, according to the UK government, was "out of control". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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