Free Republic

Researchers in South Africa are racing to track the concerning rise of a new variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The variant harbours a large number of mutations found in other variants, including Delta, and it seems to be spreading quickly across South Africa. A top priority is to track the variant more closely as it spreads: it was first identified in Botswana this month and has turned up in travellers to Hong Kong from South Africa. Scientists are also trying to understand the variant’s properties, such as whether it can evade immune responses triggered by vaccines and whether...

DRESS REHEARSAL Over the past few months, all three companies have been running dress rehearsals by practising on known SARS-CoV-2 variants. This involves updating their vaccines to match variants such as Beta and Delta, testing them in clinical studies, tuning their internal workflows and coordinating with regulators. Their goal is to learn from these warm-up trials and smooth out kinks in their processes, so that they can move fast if, or when, a true escape variant emerges. “At some point, inevitably, we’re going to have to make variant vaccines — if vaccines are the way population immunity will be maintained...

The Ministry of Health of Cote d’Ivoire today confirmed the country’s first case of Ebola since 1994. This came after the Institut Pasteur in Cote d’Ivoire confirmed the Ebola Virus Disease in samples collected from a patient, who was hospitalized in the commercial capital of Abidjan, after arriving from Guinea. Initial investigations found that the patient had travelled to Cote d’Ivoire by road and arrived in Abidjan on 12 August. The patient was admitted to a hospital after experiencing a fever and is currently receiving treatment. Guinea experienced a four-month long Ebola outbreak, which was declared over on the 19...

Unvaccinated and partially vaccinated Americans, the groups most vulnerable to Covid, are the least concerned about the more contagious Delta variant, according to a CBS News poll. While 48 percent of "not fully/not vaccinated" respondents in the poll released Sunday said they were concerned about the Delta variant, 72 percent of fully vaccinated Americans are worried.

The UK has reported another 55 cases of the ‘double mutant’ Covid-19 variant, first detected in India, while Belgium tracked down its first cases of the strain that scientists fear could be more resistant to vaccines. The latest figure, reported by Public Health England on Thursday, puts the total number of B.1.617 Covid-19 strain cases in the UK to 132, an increase from 77 reported a week ago. Earlier this week, the UK added India to its travel ‘red list’ over the new coronavirus strain, which Health Secretary Matt Hancock described “a variant of concern.”