36 ms·
New Concerning Variant: B.1.1.529
- a94d5dc743 5y agoIt's no Hacker News anymore, it's one fucking disgusting propaganda mouthpiece. Burn in hell, HN.
- mrtweetyhack 5y ago[dead]
- lstamour 5y agoFYI, slight correction: it’s been classified as a Variant of Concern (VOC) now and has the name Omicron, not Nu: https://www.who.int/news/item/26-11-2021-classification-of-omicron-(b.1.1.529)-sars-cov-2-variant-of-concern https://www.who.int/news/item/26-11-2021-classification-of-o...
- c0balt 5y agoYay, it got classified with an interesting name. No, another goddamn variant.
- DaiPlusPlus 5y agoI know it’s from the Greek alphabet, but yeah, they shouldn’t have used “Nu” - homophones cause all kinds of confusion. ----- Patient: “Give it to me straight doc, what have I got?” Doctor: “you have a case of the Nu variant of Covid.” Patient: “yeah, but what is it? What’s it called?” Doctor: “the Nu variant” Patient: “yes, but WHAT IS IT NAMED?!” Doctor: “I’VE TOLD YOU ALREADY!”
- tamaharbor 5y agoThird base...
- eyelidlessness 5y agoThe band on stage…
- ralusek 5y agoNu Metal...
- Fnoord 5y agoOr the Isle called Niue [1] who have the ccTLD .nu Nu means now in Dutch, but I don't see that as problematic (do see problem in English). New would be nieuw, with the 'w' being hearable, kinda sounding knew but with more articulation on 'i' so kniw. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niue https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niue
- akmarinov 5y agoBut what does mine say? Dude!
- rexreed 5y agoConveniently skipping the Greek letter Xi from Nu to Omicron [0] [0] https://www.mediaite.com/news/world-health-organization-skips-greek-letter-xi-in-naming-new-covid-variant/ https://www.mediaite.com/news/world-health-organization-skip...
- bingohbangoh 5y agoDoes anybody think these variants will ever stop? I hate, __hate__ this constant fear of a lockdown. Hell, a good part of europe is in lockdown right now. I get that the lockdown is being haphazardly enforce for those countries who've decided on it but I dislike these even being rules on the books. Leave me the hell alone! If we couldn't overcome it after a year of lockdowns, why is this gonna be the time it changes? Particularly embarrassing is how Sweden and Florida have just survived without much restrictions.
- Denvercoder9 5y ago> Leave me the hell alone! As long as that makes essential things such as grocery shopping more dangerous for others, such as myself, no.
- ralph84 5y agoDo you have any evidence of a significant covid outbreak being traced to grocery shopping?
- ipaddr 5y agoYes just type covid breakout grocery store in google to see all the local breakouts in your area.
- bingohbangoh 5y ago
- gfodor 5y ago> Travel bans are not evidence-based: It may seem like travel bans for individual countries are a necessary step, but I cannot stress enough that they do not work. This one point compromised the article for me. The standard for “working”, like all measures, is to slow down the spread. We all know travel bans got a bad name because you-know-who proposed them. But all countries imposed travel bans and we ought to be concrete about the level of delay they create or not. Let’s not hold any measure to a different standard due to political signaling. If travel restrictions are good on a risk adjusted basis to buy time for the “weeks” of analysis needed that could help with further reducing risk, let’s talk about it not write it off as “not working” which is non-sensical. Masks “don’t work”, vaccines “don’t work”, nothing “works” if that is taken to mean a silver bullet.
- WheelsAtLarge 5y agoTravel bans slow down the spread only if they are done for all travelers. The piece meal approach done by many countries where only certain countries are banded do little to stop the spread. The virus spreads too quickly and eventually it will come in via the travelers that are allowed to come in. Testing and retesting is probably the only way to slow it down other than a complete band on travelers.
- actually_a_dog 5y agoI agree with about 95% of this, but, I don't think "travel bans got a bad name because you-know-who proposed them." I think they got a bad name because you-know-who proposed them previously, targeting countries with you-know-what religion, for a political reason. Had it been just "we're going to reduce air traffic into the country to slow the spread of the virus," I don't think that would have been terribly controversial.
- elzbardico 5y agoThe correct title should be “New variant of concern” Not “New concerning variant” To keep with usual terminology
- threatripper 5y agoFor me this new variant of concern is quite concerning unlike some other variants of concern that don't concern me much in the country where I reside.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- dragontamer 5y agoLook, I'm about as pro-vaccine, pro-lockdown, pro-mask as they come. But the hyperbolic reporting on this variant is not helpful. News articles in mainstream press are already wrong: WHO has named this Omicron (while many publications came out with Nu). This is a virus that takes weeks to months before a variant becomes dominant. You can afford to wait a day or two to get information correct before publishing. Edit: downvotes? Did no one remember how long it took for Alpha or Delta to become dominant? Literally months. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fcases-updates%2Fvariant-proportions.html#variant-proportions https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/?CDC_AA_refVal=http... Take some time, get the damn details correct. You can afford a day or two before reporting to double check facts. At least this blog had pointed out that Nu was an expected name as opposed to the actual name. But still, getting details like this wrong or speculating on the name is very counterproductive to the issue of trust.
- tgv 5y agoWhy is a travel stop such problem? Travel can be resumed.
- Mountain_Skies 5y agoThe countries impacted feel villainized and punished. In the future they might decide to not report their findings or other countries seeing these countries become pariahs may decide to not their findings of new variants, lest they be cutoff.
- graeme 5y agoThis variant is moving much faster to dominance in South Africa than Delta. About 6x faster. You can make some quibbles (small case numbers etc) but this is quick. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/d42bcd3d-e70d-4e97-818b-40b92d89d7ff https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.ft.com/content/d42bcd3d-e70...
- dragontamer 5y agoAnd Lambda took over South America and people were worried it'd also overtake Delta in the USA. Lambda didn't win however. We were right to be concerned but don't panic about it. Lambda clearly had some 'superpowers'
- splittingTimes 5y agoFor a fully waxed person, Would it make sense to try to get infected by Delta to build more immunity to fight off that omicron thing? With so many significant variations on the spike protein the vaccines will be no help..
- dragontamer 5y agoToo early to tell. This is a variant of concern that has only been aware in the public space for like 3 days. There's pretty much no evidence of... Anything... yet. Gamma avoided natural immunity. Lambda could have avoided the vaccine. Etc etc. Variants and mutations like this come out all the time. The question is if we should care. Well, no one knows yet. This is the time to start classifying and studying the variant.
- mellavora 5y agovaxed or waxed, no. That's not how immunity works.
- dnautics 5y agoNot really, we just don't know, and it could legitimately go either way.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kaba0 5y agoThere are already second generation vaccines though, which are more effective against these new variants.
- yread 5y agoIf you're formalin-fixed wax-embedded you have absolutely nothing to worry about anymore.
- lamontcg 5y agoNo. Immunity isn't like a key fitting perfectly into a lock. You already have T-cell immunity against Omicron from the vaccine which will recognize the mutated spike.
- jakozaur 5y agoGreat conclusions, but still looks lake initial data is small. Some points about viral factor are reasonable hyphothesis, not final say. E.g. some initial hyphothesis about Delta was that it is not so deadly, but it turn out to be twice more deadly than original strain.
- rel2thr 5y ago> Because the change is small, an updated vaccine doesn’t need Phase III trials and/or regularity approval. So, this whole process should take a max of 6 weeks. This appears to be incorrect, Moderna says it needs 60 days to just get into trials (https://twitter.com/megtirrell/status/1464225637590310938 https://twitter.com/megtirrell/status/1464225637590310938) . The FDA has not said what the approval process will look like, but its safe to say it will be non-zero
- Anon84 5y agoYes, you need to show that the new vaccine works against the new variant but not that it’s safe. So it will be much faster
- refurb 5y agoWhy would you not need to show it’s safe? A new mRNA vaccine would be introducing different mRNA, which produces new antigen proteins and elicits a different immune response.
- johnchristopher 5y agoIf it elicited the same immune response it wouldn't be much of a use though, right ? Anyway, how do they know the usual but new seasonal flu vaccine is safe ? Can't the same framework apply ?
- refurb 5y agoThey run clinical trials on them to make sure they are safe and effective. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/effectivenessqa.htm https://www.cdc.gov/flu/vaccines-work/effectivenessqa.htm Manufacturers guess which flu strain will predominate and start working 9-12 months early to capture the data for approval. There is no way a new Covid mRNA vaccine will be approved with safety and efficacy data from a clinical trial. That will be take months to complete.
- 5y ago
- beardedman 5y agoLike I've said for a while now. The EU has done stellar job of demonstrating a new level of hypocrisy & complete inability to be effective in a crisis. Travel ban imposed overnight, but dear lord - don't restrict the unfettered movement to Majorca or Sardinia or elsewhere (that would just be unconstitutional)....
- throwaway23487 5y ago[flagged]
- spookthesunset 5y agoOf course it isn’t. But you aren’t allowed to say that out loud. You are supposed to just shut up and delegate all critical thinking to a very narrow field of experts (and only those in that field who have the most negative takes).
- johnchristopher 5y ago> We know that B.1.1.529 is not a “Delta plus” variant. The figure below shows a really long line, with no previous Delta ancestors. So this likely means it mutated over time in one, likely immunocompromised, individual (see my P.S. note at the end of the post). How does that work ? Virus mutate inside the host until either death or the immune system stops it ? Why is the absence of selective pressure producing a virus more efficient at spreading ?
- biophysboy 5y agoGenome replication mistakes occur rarely but naturally. The covid virus has a proofreading enzyme, but it isn't foolproof. Selective pressure is selective, not creative. With more complex organisms, its more, well, complex because they can do things like horizontal gene transfer. [EDIT]: But even here selective pressures just impose consequences, they don't cause HGT
- contravariant 5y agoThis isn't really my area so this is conjecture and guesswork. If various immunocompromised people get infected then by a fluke their immune system could be just powerful enough to contain the infection but not eradicate it, this will remain the case until the virus becomes too powerful and the host dies. It's not the absence of selective pressure that is driving the mutation here, it's the mere fact that the virus might survive the selective pressure that does it. Also from some of the explanations I've read of Covid-19 the mere duplication of the virus isn't all that damaging, the harsh way the immune system eradicates infected cells is more damaging. So someone with a limited immune response might survive for a surprisingly long time.
- biophysboy 5y agoThis is closer to my area, you're basically right. Viruses copy a lot in immunocompromised people for a long time. Lots of copying is all ya need to make variants.
- ed_balls 5y ago
- adamrezich 5y agohow many more years of this?
- ummonk 5y agoWith 32 mutations spread out over the ~1300 base pair spike protein, we're approaching the point where antibody resistance will be an issue. But knowing how our bureaucracy works, there is basically zero chance they'll update the vaccine to target omicron (which is very likely to become the dominant variant within a few months).
- biophysboy 5y agoAt the same time, a change in the spike protein that is radical enough to make the antibodies completely ineffective may also make the virus non-functional. The key can change a little, but it still needs to open the lock.
- ohiovr 5y agoActually the story broke about this new variant back in july https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/how-scientists-detect-new-covid-19-variants/?fbclid=IwAR292LUIQBZcx_Xd-2VE1T4Pv0LDdRcZzVuMN1DTy60ptrIzRKm4-GRtxXc https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/07/how-scientists-detect... but don't let that stop you from panicing.
- dot1x 5y agoThe Presidential COVID-19 Task Force in Botswana informs that the new variant was first found in 4 fully jabbed travelers. Good to know the "worst variant ever" (as it has been labeled by MSM) is NOT a pandemic of the unvakzeenated.
- atoav 5y agoI think the term "pandemic of the unvaccinated" is commonly misunderstood. What most people think it means is a pandemic that only ravages and evolves among the unvaccinated. This is not what it means however. What "pandemic of the unvaccinated" means instead is that the unvaccinated population is the key driver for the ongoing spread of the virus. The pandemic however will still infect all people be carried around by all people and evolve in all people. The unvaccinated are just the fuel that starts the fire. If you vaccinate everybody quick and early you can have it like e.g. Israel.
- guilhas 5y agoI got the virus from my vaccinated girlfriend. But now that we recovered, I am much less of a possible spreader than only vaccinated people
- guilhas 5y agoMuch more concerned with corrupt governments, and politicians profiting from covid than omicron