Posted on 08/22/2023 4:46:25 PM PDT by yesthatjallen
A highly mutated new variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 has countries on alert as scientists scramble to understand how far it has spread and how well our immunity will defend against it.
The new variant, called BA.2.86 and nicknamed Pirola by variant hunters on social media, has more than 30 amino acid changes to its spike protein compared with its next closest ancestor, the BA.2 subvariant of Omicron, according to Dr. Jesse Bloom, who studies viral evolution at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle.
“This makes it an evolutionary jump comparable in size to that which originally gave rise to Omicron,” Bloom posted on his lab’s website.
The World Health Organization designated BA.2.86 a “variant under monitoring” on Thursday, a designation that encourages countries to track and report the sequences they find.
A variant under monitoring that causes more severe disease or evades existing vaccines or treatments can be upgraded to WHO’s list of variants of interest or variants of concern. XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16 and EG.5 are listed as variants of interest. WHO has not designated any variants of concern.
Only six sequences of BA.2.86 have been reported in four countries, but epidemiologists are worried they could represent many more because worldwide monitoring of variants has dropped off.
The variant was spotted by scientists in Israel on Sunday. Since then, Denmark has reported three sequences. Two more sequences were reported in United States and in the United Kingdom, respectively.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Does anyone believe this BS today?
This is such 🐂💩!
Not this S—T again!
Scientists = Big Joke
I guess biden will have to campaign from the basement again. Collect all those mail in ballots.
Collect all those mail in ballots.
This is their plan and it will be easy for them to steal the election , AGAIN
Electionsatia-24 Virus.
🤯🤔🖕 them.
I do believe the word “manufactured” is missing from that opening sentence.
It should say, “race to fashion a coherent narrative leading people to begin to panic once again.”
Guy looks like a photoshop turning a person into Homer Simpson.
If it even exists then it came straight from a lab.
not one word. These people are sick.
Well, good old Bill Gates said the next one is going to be bad. They always tell you what they’re going to do.
Where were these so called scientists the past 20-30 years? They didn’t study the annual flu like this insane obsession they have with COVID.
Oh that’s right, there was no money to be made with Fear Porn. Just because they can detect every damned variant doesn’t mean that every damn variant is a crisis.
They have cried Wolf way too many times.
Just released from the lab I guess.
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