<
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/07/covid-19-uk-variants-testing-monitoring-drugs>
"It may feel like we should all be done with Covid-19, but sadly Covid-19 is
not done with us. At the moment, cases in England are rising again, with a 10%
rise overall in hospital admissions and the greatest increase in the north of
England. With testing reduced, national monitoring paused, the ONS infection
survey paused since spring and only recently relaunched, we have much less data
about Covid than we ever had before. We know Covid hasn’t stopped evolving, and
we have a good idea about what sort of situations might result in new and
dangerous mutations, but with less surveillance of emerging variants and
spread, we are losing what used to be a near real-time picture of the
situation.
This makes it harder to know which variants are driving the increase in cases.
The latest estimates suggest there is a soup, with several variants, including
some derived from XBB, which emerged last year, as well as EG5.1 (Eris) and a
small amount of BA.2.86 (Pirola), both of which were identified in the past few
months. It seems as though this virus is ever-changing, and as a reflection of
that, new data released in the last few days shows that the so-called Pirola
variant has evolved again – and could be more immune-evasive than the
XBB-derived variants.
So what drives this virus to change so much and so quickly? As viruses rapidly
replicate, they are more prone to acquiring mutations. So the larger the number
of infections, the more chance the virus will change. Many countries such as
the UK have moved to a position of “living with the virus” without investing in
testing, ventilation and infrastructure changes, and masking. Add to this that
vaccine coverage and access to boosters is quite limited, and there’s a recipe
for many Covid infections – and a greater likelihood of the virus changing."
Via Violet Blue’s
Pandemic Roundup: October 12, 2023
https://www.patreon.com/posts/pandemic-roundup-90829145
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
