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Now tracking the new emerging South Africa Omicron Variant

Lambda, variant most dangerous.......

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carbon20 View Drop Down
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    Posted: July 30 2021 at 5:11am







News-Medical.Net: Scientists suspect Lambda SARS-CoV-2 variant most dangerous.

https://www.news-medical.net/post.aspx?id=dff64749-8903-4880-8a3d-cddc4ac11555

Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote carbon20 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 02 2021 at 4:29pm

PerthNow: Lambda variant 'shows vaccine resistance'.

https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/coronavirus/lambda-variant-shows-vaccine-resistance-c-3579046


This last sentence should send shivers......


“Lambda can be a potential threat to the human society”.

Take care all 😷😉


Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.🖖

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EdwinSm, Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 02 2021 at 10:24pm

Given Peru's high mortality rate from Covid-19, which stands at nearly 0,6% of all population who have died from it in this pandemic, then I think we must take it seriously.    

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ME163 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 03 2021 at 7:12am

I have been thinking about this virus and how it mutates.  Normally things evolve slowly.  The rapid changes in the virus leads me to believe that this is not a natural virus.  It is not normally occuring in virial history.  Something is noit right here.  The rapid response in the form of a vaccine and the equally rapid  mutation is very strange.   Could ths be a form of population reduction or so.  Demographically, China due to it's one child policy is going to face a crisis, it may not have enough young people and an increasing  elderly population.  I have seen figures that indicate that China's birthrate is way below replacement rate.  It may be as  low as 1.18.  Given the massive numbers of elderly one is going to be forced to care for, the good folks at Wuhan may have been developing a virus that kills older adults at a very high rate.   Given the large numbers of seniors in the US, what better way to cut costs by ridding your world of old and disabled people.   It's logical to think that in order to reduce health care costs and prevent institutional collapse of the pension system which btw was never funded properly, that a virus woudl be the natural way to get rid of old people and disabled people at the sane time.   We don't understand a lot about this virus . It makes too much sense to totalitarian system to kill it's elderly via virus when confronted with demographic disaster.      The money saved would extend the life of the communist system which spends more on internal security than on defense.  This makes too much sense not to try.  The CCP is not a loved organization and is practicing widespread genocide.  If you are paranoid and desparate to stay in power, and already practicing genocide, why wouldn't you want to reduce your future burden of health care and pensions.   


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ViQueen24 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 03 2021 at 9:42am

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/the-coronavirus-is-mutating-but-what-determines-how-quickly

The coronavirus is mutating—but what determines how quickly?

Though not technically alive, viruses mutate and evolve similar to living cells, producing new variants all the time.


BYMAYA WEI-HAAS

PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 5, 2021

• 8 MIN READ


Without genetic mutations, there would be no humans. There wouldn’t be any living beings at all—no mammals, insects, or plants, not even bacteria.


These tiny errors, which can happen at random each time a cell or virus copies itself, provide the raw materials for evolution to take place. Mutations create variation in a population, which allows natural selection to amplify the traits that help creatures thrive—stretching a giraffe’s long neck to reach high leaves, or camouflaging caterpillars like poop to evade birds’ notice.


Amid a pandemic, however, the word “mutation” strikes a more ominous note. Viruses, though not technically alive, also mutate and evolve as they infect a hosts’ cells and replicate. The resulting tweaks to the virus’s genetic code could help it more readily hop between humans or evade the defenses of the immune system. Three such mutants of the virus SARS-CoV-2 have prompted experts to advocate for redoubled efforts to curb the coronavirus’s spread.


But these three versions of the virus are just a few among thousands of SARS-CoV-2 variants that have sprung up since the pandemic began. “We are creating variants like gangbusters right now because we have so many humans infected with SARS CoV-2,” says Siobain Duffy, a vial evolutionary biologist at Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences.


Many of these variants have since vanished. So why do some versions disappear, and why does the virus change in the first place? What mechanisms play puppet master for evolving viruses?


“The virus will change because that’s the underlying biology,” says Simon Anthony, a virologist working in infectious diseases at the University of California, Davis. “The question then becomes, are those changes significant to us?”


Replicating genetic codes

A successful virus is one that makes more of itself. But these tiny entities can’t do much on their own. Viruses are essentially coils of genetic material stuffed into a protein shell that’s sometimes blanketed in an outer envelope. In order to replicate, they must find a host. The virus binds to its target’s cells, injecting genetic material that hijacks the host’s cellular machinery to make a new generation of viral progeny.



But each time a new copy is made, there’s a chance that an error, or mutation, will occur. Mutations are like typos in the string of “letters” that make up a strand of DNA or RNA code.


The majority of mutations are harmful to a virus or cell, limiting the spread of an error through a population. For example, mutations can tweak the building blocks of proteins encoded in the DNA or RNA, which alters a protein’s final shape and prevents it from doing its intended job, Duffy explains.


“It doesn’t make the nice little curlicue alpha-helices it’s supposed to,” she says of a common structure found in proteins. “It doesn’t make the nice folded sheets it's supposed to.”


Many other mutations are neutral, having no effect on how efficiently a virus or cell reproduces. Such mutations sometimes spread at random, when a virus carrying the mutation spreads to a population that hasn’t been exposed to any variants of the virus yet. “It’s the only kid on the block,” Anthony says.


However, a select few mutations prove useful to a virus or cell. For example, some changes could make a virus better at jumping from one host to the next, helping it outcompete other variants in the area. This was what happened with the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 that was first identified in the United Kingdom but has now spread to dozens of countries around the world. Scientists estimate the variant is roughly 50 percent more transmissible than past forms of the virus, giving it an evolutionary edge.


The pace of evolution

Mutations may happen randomly, but the rate at which they occur depends on the virus. The enzymes that copy DNA viruses, called DNA polymerases, can proofread and fix errors in the resulting strings of genetic letters, leaving few mutations in each generation of copies.



But RNA viruses, like SARS-CoV-2, are the evolutionary gamblers of the microscopic world. The RNA polymerase that copies the virus’s genes generally lacks proofreading skills, which makes RNA viruses prone to high mutation rates—up to a million times greater than the DNA-containing cells of their hosts.


Coronaviruses have a slightly lower mutation rate than many other RNA viruses because they can do some light genetic proofreading. “But it’s not enough that it prevents these mutations from accumulating,” says virologist Louis Mansky, the director for the Institute for Molecular Virology at the University of Minnesota. So as the novel coronavirus ran amok around the world, it was inevitable that a range of variants would arise.


The true mutation rate of a virus is difficult to measure though. “Most of those mutations are going to be lethal to the virus, and you’ll never see them in the actively growing, evolving virus population,” Mansky says.


Instead, genetic surveys of sick people can help determine what’s known as the fixation rate, which is a measure of how often accumulated mutations become “fixed” within a viral population. Unlike mutation rate, this is measured over a period of time. So the more a virus spreads, the more opportunities it has to replicate, the higher its fixation rate will be, and the more the virus will evolve, Duffy says.


For SARS-CoV-2, scientists estimate that one mutation becomes established in the population every 11 days or so. But this process may not always happen at a steady pace.


In December 2020, the variant B.1.1.7 caught scientists’ attention when its 23 mutations seemed to suddenly crop up as the virus rampaged through Kent, England. Some scientists speculate that a chronically ill patient provided more opportunities for replication and mutation, and the use of therapies such as convalescent plasma may have pressured the virus to evolve. Not every change was necessarily useful to the virus, Duffy notes, yet some mutations that emerged allowed the variant to spread rapidly.



The wide world of viruses

Mutations drive evolution, but they are not the only way that a virus can change over time. Some viruses, like influenza, have other ways to increase their diversity.


Influenza is made up of eight genetic segments, which can be rearranged—a process called reassortment—if multiple viruses infect a single cell to replicate at the same time. As the viral progeny are packaged into their protein capsules, the RNA segments from the parent viruses can be mixed and matched like viral Legos. This process can cause rapid shifts in the viral function. For example, reassortments of flu strains circulating in pigs, birds, and humans led to the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic.




3:10

FLU VIRUS 101


The influenza virus is a recurring nightmare, killing thousands of people each year. Learn how the virus attacks its host, why it's nearly impossible to eradicate, and what scientists are doing to combat it.

Unlike influenza, however, coronaviruses possess no physical segmentation to undergo reassortment. Coronaviruses can experience some shifts in function through a process known as recombination, when segments of one viral genome are spliced onto another by the enzyme making the viral copy. But researchers are still working to determine how important this process is for SARS-CoV-2’s evolution.



Understanding these evolutionary dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 is vital to ensure that treatments and vaccines keep pace with the virus. For now, the available vaccines are effective in preventing severe disease from all the viral variants.


And the study of SARS-CoV-2’s evolution could help answer another looming question: Where did the virus come from? While the disease likely originated from bats, there are still missing chapters in the tale of SARS-CoV-2’s leap to human hosts. Filling in these blanks could help us learn how to protect ourselves in the future.


“As a society, globally, we don’t want this to happen again,” Mansky says.




I am the DZ Queen, and I approve this message.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiMum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 03 2021 at 2:53pm

Originally posted by ME163 ME163 wrote:

I have been thinking about this virus and how it mutates.  Normally things evolve slowly.  The rapid changes in the virus leads me to believe that this is not a natural virus.  It is not normally occuring in virial history.  Something is noit right here.  The rapid response in the form of a vaccine and the equally rapid  mutation is very strange.   Could ths be a form of population reduction or so.  Demographically, China due to it's one child policy is going to face a crisis, it may not have enough young people and an increasing  elderly population.  I have seen figures that indicate that China's birthrate is way below replacement rate.  It may be as  low as 1.18.  Given the massive numbers of elderly one is going to be forced to care for, the good folks at Wuhan may have been developing a virus that kills older adults at a very high rate.   Given the large numbers of seniors in the US, what better way to cut costs by ridding your world of old and disabled people.   It's logical to think that in order to reduce health care costs and prevent institutional collapse of the pension system which btw was never funded properly, that a virus woudl be the natural way to get rid of old people and disabled people at the sane time.   We don't understand a lot about this virus . It makes too much sense to totalitarian system to kill it's elderly via virus when confronted with demographic disaster.      The money saved would extend the life of the communist system which spends more on internal security than on defense.  This makes too much sense not to try.  The CCP is not a loved organization and is practicing widespread genocide.  If you are paranoid and desparate to stay in power, and already practicing genocide, why wouldn't you want to reduce your future burden of health care and pensions.   



Without a shadow of a doubt the Western world is facing a demographic nightmare with not enough working tax payers to support the pension and health care systems that are being crippled by the baby boomers. To remove a large percentage of the retired population would certainly solve the problem. After all, with the exception of the cost of child birth, the majority of health care costs are generated by the elderly and the disabled and any country would be better off financially if their numbers were reduced. And it's not just governments who would benefit but as private companies who have pension schemes. Since the 1980's private pension pots have been used as cash assets and now many of them are struggling to pay out. There is definitely a pension crisis looming and so to remove the pensioners would avert disaster. 

Before modern medicine, population levels would show as a pyramid with more people on the bottom layer and as they aged they would die off. But with our current system of extending life and avoiding death from accidents and infections, combined with a falling birthrate, that pyramid has inverted. It's top heavy and unsustainable.

It's unpalatable but true.

Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Technophobe Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 04 2021 at 5:08am

Sadly (I'm 60 and WillowbyBrat is older) I think you are right, KiwiMum.

How do you tell if a politician is lying?
His lips or pen are moving.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KiwiMum Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 04 2021 at 1:17pm

Personally I find it a fascinating conundrum. There is no answer to the problem without some form of genocide. It's not that governments can use quantatitive easing to create more money - they are trying that one at the moment but it will lead to inflation and so will cancel itself out wreaking havoc as it does so. 

The recent reversal of the one child policy in China had nothing to do with human rights but was a desperate attempt by the government to increase the number potential tax payers and workers. Unfortunately they are discovering that young women in China arent' interested in having an extra child, or even in having one child. They are more interested in putting their excellent education to good use and having a great career and plenty of money to spend. 

There are various financial incentives to have a child but they in no way compensate financially for the cost of raising a child. I think we'll see governments getting so desperate that they will start offering a living wage to mothers to have more children but even then I'm not sure they will be able to persuade young women to forgo a career and stay at home and have babies. Caring for young children is mind numbingly boring and very isolating. 

I think we'll get to a point when some countries are literally forcing women to have babies. When Margaret Atwood was interviewed about The Handmaiden's Tale, she stated that every single thing in her book either was occuring or had occured somewhere in the world. How scary is that?

Those who got it wrong, for whatever reason, may feel defensive and retrench into a position that doesn’t accord with the facts.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote EdwinSm, Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 04 2021 at 10:15pm

This covid-19 does seem to be one way to reduce the older population, but given the huge medical costs associated (not to count social costs), I don't think that it is a cost effective way to reduce pension expenses.  Pension companies might gain, but medical insurance will loose out.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ME163 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 05 2021 at 4:18am

Edwin and others, 


Accordingly, this issue of what to do about the elderly is a major crisis in the developed world and will soon be one in China.  If Peter Zierhan is correct, we are in a world of hurt. Every major developed nation is facing a demographic shift to population decline.  The US appears to be an outlier to the looming  pension and market crisis.   The pension time bomb that will occur is going to literally kill civilizations.  Covid is a way to reduce the elderly and disabled population to levels that are acceptable to the managers.   China is on it's way to demographic suicide.   We are just going to have to get used to declining markets and stagnation. Like Japan's lost decades. we are going to face a world of smaller and smaller shares of markets and resources.  Once the free for all starts, it is not going to be pretty.  Death is going to be a way of dealing with issues such as climate change, peak oil and  pensions.  


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