Posted on 03/25/2021 8:07:27 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A new "double mutant" variant of the coronavirus has been detected from samples collected in India.
Officials are checking if the variant, where two mutations come together in the same virus, may be more infectious or less affected by vaccines.
Some 10,787 samples from 18 Indian states also showed up 771 cases of known variants - 736 of the UK, 34 of the South African and one Brazilian.
Officials say the variants are not linked to a spike in cases in India.
India reported 47,262 cases and 275 deaths on Wednesday - the sharpest daily rise this year.
The Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), a group of 10 national laboratories under India's health ministry, carried out genomic sequencing on the latest samples. Genomic sequencing is a testing process to map the entire genetic code of an organism - in this case, the virus.
The genetic code of the virus works like its instruction manual. Mutations in viruses are common but most of them are insignificant and do not cause any change in its ability to transmit or cause serious infection. But some mutations, like the ones in the UK or South Africa variant lineages, can make the virus more infectious and in some cases even deadlier.
Virologist Shahid Jameel explained that a "double mutation in key areas of the virus's spike protein may increase these risks and allow the virus to escape the immune system".
The spike protein is the part of the virus that it uses to penetrate human cells.
The government said that an analysis of the samples collected from India's western Maharashtra state showed "an increase in the fraction of samples with the E484Q and L452R mutations" compared with December last year.
"Such [double] mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity," the health ministry said
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
Coronavirus PING!
MORE HERE:
‘Double mutant’: What are the risks of India’s new Covid-19 variant
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56517495
by: Soutik Biswas, India correspondent
[EXCERPT]
Q: What is a “double mutant” variant?
Like all viruses, the coronavirus keeps changing in small ways as it passes from one person to another.
The vast majority of these mutations are inconsequential and don’t alter the way the virus behaves.
But some mutations trigger changes in the spike protein that the virus uses to latch on to and enter human cells - these variants could potentially be more infectious, cause more severe disease or evade vaccines.
Vaccines against respiratory pathogens like SARS-Cov2, the virus that causes Covid-19, protect us by stimulating our bodies to make antibodies.
The best type to protect us are the “neutralising antibodies” because they block the virus from being able to enter the human cells.
Indian genome scientists have detected a so-called “double variant” of the novel coronavirus.
The government said that an analysis of the samples collected from the western state of Maharashtra showed “an increase in the fraction of samples with the E484Q and L452R mutations” compared with December last year.
“Such [double] mutations confer immune escape and increased infectivity,” the health ministry said in a statement.
Dr Jeremy Kamil, a virologist at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport, says the E484Q is similar to E484K - a mutation seen in the B.1.351 (South Africa) and P.1 (Brazil) variants, which have emerged independently several times.
If enough mutations happen in a viral family tree or a lineage, the virus can begin to function differently and the lineage can become a so-called ‘variant of concern’.
As far as the L452R mutation - also found in the “double mutation” in India - it first got attention as part of B.1.427/B.1.429 lineage in the US, which is sometimes called the “California variant”, Dr Kamil told me.
Q: Are such “double mutants” rare?
Not at all, says Dr Kamil, who recently co-authored a study of seven growing lineages of the novel coronavirus in the US.
“It is now extremely common to see more than one mutation at once - even if we limit ourselves to the spike gene.”
Earlier in the pandemic, most spike genes had only one mutation - D614G. Now that mutation is dominant and everywhere, “so we see others on top of it”, according to Dr Kamil.
Q: How worried should we be about the new variant?
Mutations in the spike gene can make the virus inherently “better” at infecting people or can help the virus to escape neutralising antibodies.
This means if the virus mutates in the “right way”, it can reinfect someone who has already recovered from Covid-19.
But scientists say reinfections will be very mild compared to primary infections in people who are vaccinated or who recovered already from an earlier case of Covid-19.
But if the virus can use reinfection to spread, then it would be “penetrating” herd immunity, says Dr Kamil. (Herd immunity happens when a large portion of a community becomes immune to a disease through vaccination or through the mass spread of the disease.)
This puts the most vulnerable people at risk of severe disease, since the virus can move through the herd to reach them.
He says unlike some other variants, India’s new double variant is not likely to be more deadly or more inherently transmissible, but that more data is needed to be sure.
Is that like double secret deadly virus?
SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56517495
Q: Is the variant the reason behind India’s second wave?
India reported 47,262 cases and 275 deaths on Wednesday - the sharpest daily rise this year.
Dr Rakesh Mishra, director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), told me that the “double-variant” had been found in 20% of the cases in Maharashtra, which has seen a huge spike in reported infections.
“One suspicion is that this variant is the cause of India’s second wave of infections. I would say no, 80% of the samples we have sequenced don’t have this combination of mutants. This mutant has been linked to only 230 cases in Maharashtra of the several thousand samples sequenced,” he said.
“Have you tried rebooting your vaccine?”
SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-56517495
Q: Is the variant the reason behind India’s second wave?
India reported 47,262 cases and 275 deaths on Wednesday - the sharpest daily rise this year.
Dr Rakesh Mishra, director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), told me that the “double-variant” had been found in 20% of the cases in Maharashtra, which has seen a huge spike in reported infections.
“One suspicion is that this variant is the cause of India’s second wave of infections. I would say no, 80% of the samples we have sequenced don’t have this combination of mutants. This mutant has been linked to only 230 cases in Maharashtra of the several thousand samples sequenced,” he said.
If I’m not on this ping list, could you add me... thanks
Or if they may be less infectious or more affected by vaccines.
But, hey, if you're already looking for a pre-determined outcome.....
Makes me think about those “superbugs” they find in hospitals that are impossible to kill. They sanitize everything they can to 99.9%, which leaves only the most dangerous 0.1% of spores, which are resistant to the sanitizing, to grow unfettered. At least when the other 99.9% of bacteria are present they keep the worst of the bacteria in check.
Evolution but speeding it up.
I thought this was “triple mutant variant of Covid-19”?
This sounds serious. We better look for more US industries to collapse, new powers to give to the junta in DC. And we better bulldoze every tree within a mile of town to build new Amazon centers. Nothing is more important than safety and centralizing control. /s
Oh, noes!! Double-Mutant!!
Forget the infectiousness of this normal phenomenon....what’s the lethality?
I see case rates went up, in India (they said this Double-Mutant strain has nothing to do with that) but death rates are low.
👍🏼👍🏼
The way I figure it, I figure if I ain’t caught the corona virus by now, I figure I ain’t never going to catch it. I figure I’m pretty deep into a bottle of Pussers right now so I figure that’s responsible for this response.
maybe we can have mRna upgrade injections every Season, just think how much money could be made
Done.
Indian filth has a way of doing that.
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