Posted on 12/20/2020 12:54:23 PM PST by Crucial
There is something about words with latin origins in English that is inherently confusing to native speakers. A perfectly good Anglo-Saxon word that means the same thing would be “deadly”.
In my book, “deadly” wins on three counts:
1) Two syllables vs. 3
2) Meaning is clear to all speakers of English
3) It is unambiguous — the meaning of “virulent” is evolving to mean “more contagious”*, leaving doubt as to which meaning is intended.
Of course, it’s probably intended that the snooty “Virulent” is preferred by some, who might want to affect airs, and seem more wise than they in fact are.
*If I’m to be consistent, I should prefer “more catching” to the latin carpetbagger “contagious”.
I am not snooty or putting on airs. Just using words as I was taught them
I was not trying to imply that you were, no offense was intended.
I replied to you because you had the correct definition of “virulent”, but there was confusion on this thread on that exact point.
It remains unclear if Dr. Zelenko’s use of the word was deliberate, but I suspect it was, as other sources are reporting that the new strain certainly appears to be more catching, with more carefully couched concerns that it is also more deadly.
bookmark
Thanks, that link worked for me.
Thank you.
Exactly!
Australians are in full covid hysteria again, partly over what they describe as a “case” of an American variant, but also because of the hysteria in the UK over their “variant”. last nite Aussie time, a top radio station questioned how come BBC is reporting WHO has told them the UK variant is in Australia, when our army of public health officials have press conferences daily & haven’t mentioned this. so the producer contacted WHO - as it was office hours in Geneva - and asked specifically about what BBC reported and asked where in Australia the UK variant was supposed to be etc. they got back a piece of bureaucratic nonsense, which didn’t address a single question:
20 Dec: BBC: Covid: WHO in ‘close contact’ with UK over new virus variant
Along with the UK, the same mutation of the Covid-19 virus has also been detected in the Netherlands, Denmark and Australia, the WHO told the BBC...
The WHO’s senior emergency officer for Europe, Catherine Smallwood, said nine instances of the same variant as seen in the UK had been reported in Denmark, with one case in Australia and one in the Netherlands.
Several other countries had confirmed variants that “carry some of the genetic changes seen in the UK”, Dr Smallwood added...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-55382212
20 Dec: BBC: New coronavirus variant: What do we know?
By James Gallagher
Three things are coming together that mean it is attracting attention:
•It is rapidly replacing other versions of the virus...
There is no “nailed on” figure for how much more infectious the variant may be. Scientists, whose work is not yet public, have told me figures both much higher and much lower than 70%.
But there remain questions about whether it is any more infectious at all.
“The amount of evidence in the public domain is woefully inadequate to draw strong or firm opinions on whether the virus has truly increased transmission,” said Prof Jonathan Ball, a virologist at the University of Nottingham...
It is thought the variant either emerged in a patient in the UK or has been imported from a country with a lower ability to monitor coronavirus mutations.
The variant can be found across the UK, except Northern Ireland, but it is heavily concentrated in London, the South East and eastern England. Cases elsewhere in the country do not seem to have taken off.
Data from Nextstrain, which has been monitoring the genetic codes of the viral samples around the world, suggest cases in Denmark and Australia have come from the UK. The Netherlands has also reported cases...
A similar variant that has emerged in South Africa shares some of the same mutations, but appears to be unrelated to this one...
The virus that was first detected in Wuhan, China, is not the same one you will find in most corners of the world.
The D614G mutation emerged in Europe in February and became the globally dominant form of the virus.
Another, called A222V, spread across Europe and was linked to people’s summer holiday’s in Spain...
An initial analysis of the new variant has been published and identifies 17 potentially important alterations...
The variant is unusually highly mutated.
The most likely explanation is the variant has emerged in a patient with a weakened immune system that was unable to beat the virus.
Instead their body became a breeding ground for the virus to mutate...
Will the vaccines work against the new variant?
Almost certainly yes, or at least for now.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55388846
Tweet: Dr. Emma Hodcroft, co-developer of @nextstrain atISPMBern
For the UK variant:
Outside of the UK, we see very small numbers of sequences in Denmark (a bit hard to see - hidden behind UK circle) & Australia. Their position on the tree indicates that they’re likely exports from the UK.
LINK
20 Dec 2020
from replies:
Jackstar: Could you provide any further info on the Australian cases where this variant has been identified? ie number of cases/location?
https://twitter.com/firefoxx66/status/1340360004621230081
Nice simplified explanation of the new covid strain
Blue screen vaccine...
i was basically responding to reports from NY Post that said there was no evidence of it being more deadly as of yet- That may change as data comes in- or maybe it already has, Zelenko mentioned it was more virulent
Twitter has just suspended Dr. Zelenko’s account
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