According to Dr Greg Armstrong, who directs genetic sequencing at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suspicious samples from the states of Massachusetts and Delaware are also being analysed.
Dr Armstrong said the CDC is working with a national lab that gets samples from around the country to broaden the search for the variant with its first results expected within days.
Sequencing 750 viruses a week isnât anything to sneeze at, not sure what you expected.
People have been monitoring and reporting on COVID mutations for a while now, this is certainly something thatâs actively being tracked.
Good news dude. Those of us whoâve caught colds recently have been lucky it wasnât something much worseâŚ
1 Like
Only the second case theyâve detected. Likely itâs been there for weeks or months.
1 Like
+1.
It would appear an external contractor has been hastily appointed on news of new variant and even the intial pot shot anaylsis is detecting community transmission of the new variant. Likely months of US transmission with the new variant only gaining minor dominance so far in CA. Next 10 days should tell.
With only basic detection methods and low sample size, itâs likely the new variant will be a major problem long before it is properly established how many of the daily cases are the new(ish) variant.
Piecing some things together from the CDC website, they sequence 7000 flu specimens every year out of not quite 300,000 lab-confirmed cases (here and here), which is about 2.5% of lab-confirmed cases. If we are clocking a million confirmed cases a week and only sequencing 2250, that seems not great. But thatâs what weâre apparently ramping towardsâI couldnât find the actual current numbers.
And I know that people are sequencing viruses for research purposesâIâve seen the papers with the crazy phylogenetic tree graphs that are apparently meaningful to people smarter than me. I guess that was really my question. Is that the mechanism for tracking when new variants emerge? And if so, how confident can we be that, say 1,000 or 10,000 of the million new cases last week werenât superCOVID? If my math is right, sequencing 1000 samples out of a million would definitely catch at least one hit if there were 10,000 superCOVID samples, but is only two-thirds likely to hit on 1000 samples. (Assumes uniform sampling, which is likely not the case in the real world.)
To get back to the point of the thread, that level of testing (1 sample in a thousand) probably does rule out superCOVID being quantitatively significant in Californiaâs numbers, but we could be weeks down an exponential growth curve of the new strain without having any real idea.
Man I have 5 days left of advertising on FB for some business stuff but then I gots to go. Iâve never hit a women, thought about hitting nor will I ever unless itâs extreme last resort in self defense, but this on POS who bartenders at my buddies bar when she not spewing the worst covid info ever has me feeling very unhealthy mentally. Whatâs the ban on the C word. I need to vent .
Cliffs : the news story and thread is about a very popular local girl in our community experiencing some tough covid side effects including hair loss. I know her. Sheâs a great person and community all star.
The thread is surprisingly un aidsy for these parts. If u shift through the pars n tots there is some really good symptom sharing and coping and talk of support groups forming .
Then the c of all cs comes in and tells the girl her issues arenât covid related
This imbibe spends 8 hours a day posting this shit . She was a C student and a half ass day shift bartender . No compassion . I canât keep starting my days like this
Yes and who knows. This travels much faster than anyone can react to it, which is part of why the China travel ban was a bit silly.
If anything, itâs amazing that weâre getting day-by-day info on how these strains are spreading instead of having to wait a year to see how it played out.
UK currently doing 10k a week, I think.
https://www.cogconsortium.uk/news_item/how-do-we-collect-and-sequence-sars-cov-2-samples/
Truth. Sadly.
1 Like
If you sleep in your rig it seems like you can not have a high risk profile. Def invest in a higher class of mask for when you have to deal with people indoors.
Good luck. What you do is front line work in my book. Maybe someday we will have a senate that agrees.
3 Likes
Doing vaccination card restrictions anytime soon is a very bad idea. In 2022 we can have that discussion for sure, but as bad as this vaccine rollout is if we give the vaccinated extra privileges now that is it for vaccinating the vulnerable first. Espeically with a number of politicians all taking early doses. It will be vaccines for the well off and middle class and dick for the poor, same as it ever was, and political suicide to support a lockdown even more so than today.
Imagine a utopia where all the covid hoaxers and anti vaxers refuse the jab? After we get vaccinated and our travel documents we can fill resorts with zero deplorables. I may buy some property in Puerto Rico cause they canât drive there.
3 Likes
Resorts entire business model are bilking deplorables for mediocre vacations. 0% chance they ever require vaccination.
But if u need it to fly?
A fair point. I hope you do need it to fly at some point. Iâm skeptical on that also. Airlines have been getting killed, Iâm not sure they will do it.
Your are right about the airlines. But Fffikkkk them. If u look at the last 11 years, Iâm guessing this years losses drop the bottom line for that period, what 5-10%?
Of course they donât save profits life working people are supposed so ya , they are in trouble.