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WHO tracking new coronavirus variant ‘mu’ and its resistance to vaccines
Christian Post ^ | 09/03/2021 | Leonardo Blair

Posted on 09/03/2021 9:39:34 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The World Health Organization announced it is now tracking a new coronavirus variant known as “mu,” or B.1.621. Early data suggest the variant is showing resistance to COVID-19 vaccines similar to the beta variant, which one recent study suggests is deadlier than all other variants.

In its weekly epidemiological update published Tuesday, the WHO explained that mu was first identified in Colombia in January 2021 but officially flagged it as a variant of interest on Monday.

Variants of interest usually cause “significant community transmission or multiple COVID-19 clusters, in multiple countries with increasing relative prevalence alongside increasing number of cases over time, or other apparent epidemiological impacts to suggest an emerging risk to global public health."

“The Mu variant has a constellation of mutations that indicate potential properties of immune escape," the global health agency noted. "Preliminary data presented to the Virus Evolution Working Group show a reduction in neutralization capacity of convalescent and vaccinee sera similar to that seen for the Beta variant, but this needs to be confirmed by further studies.”

According to GISAID, over 2,000 cases of mu variant have been reported in the United States. That marks the highest number of all the countries where mu cases were reported.

“Since its first identification in Colombia in January 2021, there have been a few sporadic reports of cases of the Mu variant and some larger outbreaks have been reported from other countries in South America and in Europe. As of 29 August, over 4500 sequences (3794 sequences of B.1.621 and 856 sequences of B.1.621.1) have been uploaded to GISAID from 39 countries,” the WHO report states.

“Although the global prevalence of the Mu variant among sequenced cases has declined and is currently below 0.1%, the prevalence in Colombia (39%) and Ecuador (13%) has consistently increased. The reported prevalence should be interpreted with due consideration of sequencing capacities and timeliness of sharing of sequences, both of which vary between countries. More studies are required to understand the phenotypic and clinical characteristics of this variant. The epidemiology of the Mu variant in South America, particularly with the co-circulation of the Delta variant, will be monitored for changes,” the international health agency added.

Since WHO declared the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, nearly 216 million cases of the virus have been reported, and just under 4.5 million people have died.

WHO is tracking four coronavirus variants of concern: alpha, beta, delta and gamma. It is also monitoring five variants of interest, including mu, eta, iota, kappa and lambda,

In a report published in August, researchers from Qatar evaluated the severity, acute-care hospitalization, criticality, ICU hospitalization and fatality of both the alpha and beta variants of the virus through eight case-control studies.

The study came after the Arab nation experienced a severe wave of alpha variant COVID-19 infections beginning in mid-January, which peaked in March. This wave was then immediately followed by the beta variant that peaked in the first week of April.

According to researchers: “The Alpha variant presented a 48% higher risk of severe disease than wild-type variants in the population of Qatar, affirming its greater gravity.”

Data on the beta variant was even more troubling.

“Infection with the Beta variant was associated with even greater risks of severe and critical disease and COVID-19 death, affirming earlier observational analyses suggesting its high gravity. Compared to the Alpha variant, infections with the Beta variant posed a 24% higher risk of severe disease, 49% higher risk of critical disease, and 57% higher risk of COVID-19 death,” researchers said.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: chinavirus; chinavuris; coronavirus; mu; muvariant; variant; who
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To: Owen

Owen wrote:

“Variants are labeled by Greek letter. Delta through Lambda have not grown global case count to be significant so you do not hear about them. That’s why the jump.

Lambda smashed Peru about 3 months ago so it got attention, and is spreading.”

So, is the CDC/WHO/NIH going on about Delta in the US more fearmongering?

Or do the variants happen to be grouped in certain regions?


21 posted on 09/03/2021 10:46:26 AM PDT by WildHighlander57 ((WildHighlander57 returning after lurking since 2000) )
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To: SeekAndFind

Our communist masters are hard at work making the Afghan news go away with convenient plane crashes, floods, new chicom virus strains, and the Jan 6 investigation...

Already the 13 American patriots killed are an after thought in the sheeple’s consciousness, with most of the sheeple now focused on the NFL season opening...

In the mean time, our communist masters are flooding the country with new terrorists in the guise of refugees so that the violence and terror attacks to come will cement, for all time, the tyranny that now envelops us...


22 posted on 09/03/2021 10:49:29 AM PDT by SuperLuminal (Where is another Sam Adams now that we desperately need him?)
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To: SeekAndFind

That’s ok MU is the cute one - it’s MU 2 that you have to watch out for trying to take over the world with his transformed fellow Pokemon


23 posted on 09/03/2021 11:35:21 AM PDT by reed13k (For evil to triumph it is only necessary that good men do nothing)
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To: dixie1202

Booger don't care.

24 posted on 09/03/2021 11:38:31 AM PDT by CodeJockey (Dum Spiro, Pugno)
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To: SeekAndFind

The sky is falling The sky is falling ... again and again again and again again and again


25 posted on 09/03/2021 11:45:53 AM PDT by antidemoncrat (somRead more at: https://economicti)
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To: SeekAndFind
Listed from most reliable to the least...




26 posted on 09/03/2021 11:48:05 AM PDT by Bobalu (The higher the monkey climbs, the more you see his ass.)
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To: WildHighlander57

>
“Variants are labeled by Greek letter. Delta through Lambda have not grown global case count to be significant so you do not hear about them. That’s why the jump.

Lambda smashed Peru about 3 months ago so it got attention, and is spreading.”

So, is the CDC/WHO/NIH going on about Delta in the US more fearmongering?
>

1565 deaths in the US yesterday ostensibly to COVID. People can indeed wave their hands over their heads and say many deaths are mis-attributed to COVID, but the problem is that 1565 number is much higher than just 6 weeks ago. It’s a surge. One would think misattribution now and then (6 wks back) would be equivalent. 1565 might not be correct but it being sharply higher than 6 weeks ago is very likely correct. Surge.

The surge is via Delta. Last I heard something like 70% of cases are now Delta. Most death surge was in August. We’ll soon start to hear numbers for vaccinated deaths to Delta in August.


27 posted on 09/03/2021 1:37:41 PM PDT by Owen
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