Category: Corona Virus

Scientists say a Belgian woman was infected with two coronavirus variants at the same time, including beta. Beta's spike protein is shown here in a scientific illustration. Juan Gaertner /Getty Images/Science Photo Library hide caption

Scientists say a Belgian woman was infected with two coronavirus variants at the same time, including beta. Beta's spike protein is shown here in a scientific illustration.

The patient came to the hospital because she was repeatedly falling down. She was breathing fine, and her blood oxygen levels were good. But tests showed that the 90-year-old Belgian woman had COVID-19 and not just one strain, but two variants of the virus. She died at the hospital in just five days after her respiratory system rapidly deteriorated.

"To our knowledge, this is one of the first reports of a double infection" with two coronavirus variants of concern, the researchers said.

The woman had both the alpha and beta variants of the coronavirus (which were detected first in the U.K. and South Africa, respectively), according to a paper that was presented over the weekend at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases.

"Both these variants were circulating in Belgium at the time, so it is likely that the lady was co-infected with different viruses from two different people," said Anne Vankeerberghen of the OLV Hospital in Aalst, Belgium, in a news release.

"Unfortunately, we don't know how she became infected," added Vankeerberghen, who is a molecular biologist and lead author of the report.

Before falling ill, the woman had been living alone in her home, where she received nursing care. Her previous medical history contained no red flags, according to Vankeerberghen and her co-authors.

But a screening test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, returned a "strongly positive" result. Follow-up PCR tests for variants of concern identified the two coronavirus strains in her system. Secondary tests confirmed the unusual results.

While the case is being seen as the first confirmed instance of a double infection, Vankeerberghen and the other researchers note that similar cases have been reported. In Brazil, for instance, people were found to have two variants in their system early this year, but that study has not yet been published. And in the past, the researchers say, flu patients have been found to have contracted two distinct strains of the influenza virus.

Testing for coronavirus variants in COVID-19 patients is routine at the OLV Hospital. While the researchers call the woman's condition "exceptional," they say more widespread testing for variants of concern "would probably identify more mixed infection and could lead to a better insight for their effect on illness and treatment."

Coronavirus variants have been blamed for driving localized or regional surges of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S., even as high vaccination rates have tamped down on cases in many areas.

In April, the Biden administration announced a massive push to boost testing for variants.

"U.S. public health officials have been operating with incomplete information because of an inadequate viral genomics surveillance system," as NPR reported at the time.

Health experts say it's particularly vital to identify the strains of the virus that are responsible for thousands of U.S. "breakthrough cases," in which the virus manages to infect vaccinated people.

Continued here:

A Woman Died Of COVID After Contracting 2 Variants At The Same Time, Researchers Say - NPR

Updated at 1:21 p.m. ET on July 13, 2021.

The first thing to know about the COVID-19 vaccines is that theyre doing exactly what they were designed and authorized to do. Since the shots first started their rollout late last year, rates of COVID-19 disease have taken an unprecedented plunge among the immunized. We are, as a nation, awash in a glut of spectacularly effective vaccines that can, across populations, geographies, and even SARS-CoV-2 variants, stamp out the most serious symptoms of disease.

The second thing to know about the COVID-19 vaccines is that theyre flame retardants, not impenetrable firewalls, when it comes to the coronavirus. Some vaccinated people are still getting infected, and a small subset of these individuals is still getting sickand this is completely expected.

Were really, really bad at communicating that second point, which is all about breakthroughs, a concept that has, not entirely accurately, become synonymous with vaccine failure. Its a problem that goes far beyond semantics: Bungling the messaging around our shots astounding success has made it hard to convey the truly minimal risk that the vaccinated face, and the enormous gamble taken by those who eschew the jabs.

The main problem is this. As the CDC defines it, the word breakthrough can refer to any presumed infection by SARS-CoV-2 (that is, any positive coronavirus test) if its detected more than two weeks after someone receives the final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. But infections can come with or without symptoms, making the term imprecise. That means breakthroughs writ large arent the most relevant metric to use when were evaluating vaccines meant primarily to curb symptoms, serious illness, hospitalizations, and death. Breakthrough disease is what the average person needs to be paying attention to, Cline Gounder, an infectious-disease physician at Bellevue Hospital Center in New York, told me. Silent, asymptomatic breakthroughsthose that are effectively invisible in the absence of a virus-hunting diagnosticare simply not in the same league.

To put this in perspective, consider the original criteria laid out by the FDA about this time last year, back when the United States was still solidly in its second infectious surge. An effective inoculation, the agency said, should be able to prevent disease or decrease its severity in at least 50 percent of people who are vaccinated. Its an easy benchmark to forget. By the close of 2020, two vaccines absolutely obliterated those expectations; two months later, a third followed, and now theres buzz of a fourth.

If disease is our yardstick, then breakthrough COVID-19 casesa very small subset of all known breakthroughsmight meet our criteria for concern. These are actual illnesses, events where the shots protection has apparently crumbled; these cases are the same ones that vaccine makers searched so diligently for in clinical trials, to ensure that their products were working. By the same logic, asymptomatic coronavirus infections fall outside our shots protective purview as we defined it so many months ago. And although theyre important to track and glean data from, conflating them with the rest, experts told me, risks misrepresenting what our vaccines can do. (The CDC responded to an inquiry about its designation by saying that while a SARS-CoV-2 infection indicates any positive tests for the virus and a COVID case refers to a person with a positive test who meets other case definitions, throughout COVID the terms infection and case have often been used interchangeably.)

Read: Heres why breakthroughs happen

The term breakthrough has long been a staple of the infectious-disease community, where its used to describe the detection of vaccine-preventable pathogens in immunized individuals. This is definitely not a new idea, says Kevin Escandn, a physician and infectious-disease researcher at the University of Valle, in Colombia. But as a popular notion, it was always doomed to cause some confusion. Breakthrough is still used as an adjective of praise; the pandemic has now warped the word into a foreboding noun that tends to eclipse all clarifying qualifiers. Its confusing, its fuzzy, its already loaded, Alison Buttenheim, who studies human behavior around vaccines at the University of Pennsylvania, told me. And when news appears in a headline or push alert, or on social media, people pay attention to the word breakthrough and not much else, Ryan McNamara, a virologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told me. Thats unfortunate, when the simple addition of asymptomatic or symptomatic can make all the difference. As they stand, blanket breakthroughs sound far scarier than they should.

Joseph Allen, a public-health researcher at Harvard, recently pointed out on Twitter one such ambiguity, in a study documenting a very small number of breakthrough infections at a prison. All were asymptomaticthough you wouldnt know it from the papers title.

To be clear, breakthroughs of any severity are an entirely expected part of the vaccination process. No vaccines are 100 percent effective at preventing infection or disease. But our current crop of COVID-19 shots comes pretty damn close with regards to stymieing symptoms, especially the severe ones that can signal a deadly case. The Moderna and Pfizer shots have consistently demonstrated very high COVID-prevention rates, often in the 90s; Johnson & Johnsons, for the most part, isnt far behind. Symptomatic breakthroughs are the cases that wedge themselves in the gap between excellent effectiveness and perfect effectiveness; in other words, we saw them coming.

Even out in the messiness of the real world, symptomatic breakthrough cases are proving themselves quite rare. The overwhelming majority of the COVID-19 cases were seeing are among the unvaccinated. And when the virus does affect the immunized, it seems to accumulate to lower levels, and spread less enthusiastically to new hosts; its causing, on average, milder and more transient symptoms.

All of this is a reminder of how vaccines workby ratcheting up our immunity against the version of SARS-CoV-2 that the shots were formulated to mimic. If humans are wood that fuels a flame, and coronaviruses are the sparks that ignite it, vaccines are the fire suppressants that protect best against the worst of the viral burn: severe disease, hospitalization, and death. Stopping milder cases requires more immune investment, and blocking asymptomatic infectionsones that barely singe the barkis most difficult of all. Its part of why the vaccines goalposts were at first set so conservatively. This is not a magic shield that just bounces coronavirus right off you, McNamara told me.

Considering that we first took aim at stopping disease, its great news that the majority of known breakthroughs have actually been asymptomatic infections, not COVID-19 cases. The proportions of silent breakthroughs reported by various studies and federal agencies are certainly undercounts, because vaccinated people arent regularly screened for the coronavirus. (On May 1, the CDC controversially switched its reporting strategy to documenting only breakthrough cases involving some form of hospitalization or death, skewing national counts further.) Since the vaccines first deployed, the news has only improved: Researchers didnt bank on it, but in many people, the shots seem to stop the coronavirus from establishing itself at all. The vaccines are better than anything we ever dreamed of, Gounder told me, exceeding our first expectations in more ways than one.

The shots are even holding their own against SARS-CoV-2 variants. A few versions of the virus have picked up mutations that help them dodge certain anti-coronavirus antibodies. But these genetic alterations chip away only incrementally at immune protection, rather than obliterating it. Against Delta, for instance, vaccines like Pfizers are still curbing severe disease, hospitalization, and death to an extraordinary degree. And while the shots strength has slightly slackened when it comes to milder illnesses and silent infections, those are simply lower hurdles for a virus to clear. Pfizers protection is still hitting its mark where it matters the most. (One asterisk on this is long COVID, a condition whose relationship to vaccination is still being actively researched.)

None of this means, of course, that asymptomatic breakthrough infections should be ignored. To fully understand what the virus is doing and where it might be headed, experts need as comprehensive a picture as they can get of whom its afflicting, and what form those infections take, across the entire spectrum of disease. They also need to know how and when its most likely to spread. Asymptomatic infections are a part of that. Researchers around the world are still diligently sequencing any and all test-positive coronavirus samples they can, regardless of symptoms, in part to check whether any particular variants are disproportionately infiltrating the inoculated. Theyre also tabulating whos experiencing breakthroughs, and testing whether select populations might benefit from an early vaccine boost.

Read: What breakthrough infections can tell us

And when vaccines start to consistently falter against more severe tiers of diseasebecause of either a new variant, waning immune memory of the virus, or boththe diligent monitoring of breakthroughs will pick it up. Tracking milder breakthroughs is also crucial to figuring out how well the virus can be transmitted from vaccinated people, something thats much more difficult to determine than whether inoculations merely block disease. From a surveillance standpoint, casting a broad net for breakthroughsone that accounts for infections of all typesis essential, Buttenheim said. Thats how you catch everything.

The question of which breakthroughs matter ultimately depends on another: Whats the goal of vaccination? Gounder thinks that, for now, the focus should stay on using immunizations to control COVID-19, especially while so much of the world remains unvaccinated; understanding whether were accomplishing that goal, then, hinges on symptomatic breakthroughs. Eventually, well have the bandwidth to turn our attention to halting transmission and infection more comprehensively. Then, well pull asymptomatic breakthroughs back into the conversation, with more data to guide our next move.

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What Counts as a COVID-19 Breakthrough Case? - The Atlantic

BAGHDAD The death toll at a southern Iraqi hospital treating Covid patients rose to at least 92 people on Tuesday, as witnesses described chaotic scenes of volunteers desperately trying to pry open a padlocked front door, malfunctioning fire extinguishers, and fire trucks running out of water as the ward burned.

The fast-spreading blaze tore through the new isolation ward at the Imam Hussein Teaching Hospital in the city of Nasiriya late Monday night into early Tuesday. It was the second such tragedy in the country in less than three months, after a similar fire broke out in April in a Baghdad coronavirus hospital and killed at least 82 people.

Most of the patients were breathing through ventilators and unable to move, said Dr. Aws Adel, a health official for the province of Dhi Qar which includes Nasiriya. Most of the hospital staff were able to escape.

The lack of precautions at the hospital, the speed at which the fire spread, and the feeble ability to fight it reflected a country in deep crisis after years of corruption and government mismanagement have left basic government services barely functioning.

The fire was sparked by an electrical short in a ventilator that resulted in oxygen canisters exploding, said Brig. Gen. Fouad Kareem Abdullah, a provincial police spokesman.

The Iraqi civil defense chief, Maj. Gen. Kathem Bohan, said the building that housed the three-month-old coronavirus isolation ward next to the main hospital had been constructed from flammable materials. The roof appeared to have melted along with sandwich board panels with foam cores that made up much of the construction. Other officials have said oxygen is stored haphazardly at almost all Iraqi hospitals.

Provincial health officials said that around 70 patients and at least as many of their relatives were in the ward when the fire broke out. While normal coronavirus precautions ban visitors from isolation wards, a lack of nursing and other hospital staff in Iraq mean that patients rely on family members to take care of them.

Ahmed Sachet al-Ghizzi, 21, said he was on a bridge near the hospital late Monday night when he saw smoke and flames. He rode there on his motorbike and tried to open the front door of the ward so people could escape, but found it locked.

He said he and other volunteers, many of them young men who are part of an active anti-government protest movement in Nasiriya, ran to the back door but couldnt enter because of the flames and smoke.

It was open, but it was a narrow door and people were pushing to get out, he said. Nurses rushed to try to put out the flames with portable fire extinguishers, but almost none of them were working, he added.

Mr. al-Ghizzi said he and others broke the front door down to allow more people to flee while desperate relatives who had heard about the fire tried to rush into the burning building.

People were shouting and crying: I want my dad! Im looking for my brother! Where is my mom? he said. We made a human chain to keep them out so we could try to rescue some of the wounded.

Salam al-Ghizzi, another volunteer, said that when he arrived at the hospital to try to help, he found the front door padlocked with chains. He said the ceiling began to collapse while flames engulfed the door, and no one could get in or out.

We saw the firefighting vehicles had run out of water and there was no emergency water source in the hospital, he said. We could hear people screaming, saying they needed help, that their mothers or fathers were inside. But we could not help them.

The dead were almost all patients, family members caring for them, or others who tried to rescue them, according to provincial health officials in Nasiriya. They said two health care workers were killed but other staff members managed to flee before the fire spread and the ceiling of the prefabricated building collapsed.

Dr. Adel said the dead included at least one volunteer, an engineer, who rushed into the burning building to try to help.

What happened yesterday in Nasiriya represents a deep wound in the conscience of all Iraqis, Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi told a special session of parliament on Tuesday. He ordered the detention of the provincial health director, the civil defense chief and the hospital director.

If this disaster happened in any other country, it would be reason for the resignation of the entire government, the parliamentary health and environment committee said in a statement, adding that the repeated tragedies show that Iraqi lives are not valued.

During the day on Tuesday, workers tried to retrieve the remains of victims from under the charred ruins of the three-month-old facility. At least 22 bodies were so badly burned that health officials were using DNA tests to identify them.

Iraq is in the midst of a third wave of coronavirus infections. Last week, the country reached a high of 9,000 new cases a day with more than 17,000 dead since the pandemic began, according to the health ministry. The infection and death rates are believed to be significantly undercounted because many people believe it is safer to be treated at home.

The fire in April at a coronavirus hospital in the capital, Baghdad, was believed to have been caused by a spark igniting improperly stored oxygen canisters. Some of the patients hooked up to ventilators were burned alive in their beds along with visiting relatives who would not leave them.

The hospital had no working fire alarm and no sprinkler system and Iraqs health minister at the time resigned in response.

Falih Hassan, Awadh al-Taiee and Nermeen al-Mufti contributed reporting.

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Death Toll Rises to 92 in Fire That Gutted Iraq Hospital Coronavirus Ward - The New York Times

The U.S. has seen a string of COVID-19 outbreaks tied to summer camps in recent weeks in places such as Texas, Illinois, Florida, Missouri and Kansas, in what some fear could be a preview of the upcoming school year.

In some cases the outbreaks have spread from the camp to the broader community.

The clusters have come as the number of newly confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the U.S. has reversed course, surging more than 60% over the past two weeks from an average of about 12,000 a day to around 19,500, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

The rise in many places has been blamed on too many unvaccinated people and the highly contagious delta variant.

Gwen Ford, a 43-year-old science teacher from Adrian, Missouri, was cautiously optimistic when she eyed the dropping case numbers in the spring and signed up her 12-year-old daughter for the West Central Christian Service Camp.

But one day after the girl got home from a week of playing in the pool, worshipping with friends and bunking in a dormitory, Ford got an email about an outbreak and then learned that her daughters camp buddy was infected.

It was very nerve-wracking. It kind of seems like we finally felt comfortable and it happened, Ford said, adding that her daughter ultimately tested negative.

Ford said she definitely plans to get her daughter vaccinated but hadnt done so because there wasnt much time between the start of camp and the governments authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds in May.

A note posted on the camps Facebook page showed that the camp nurse and several other staff members and volunteers were among those infected. Staff members at the camp did not return a call for comment.

JoAnn Martin, administrator of the public health agency in surrounding Pettis County, lamented the difficulty in getting people to take the virus seriously and get vaccinated.

It has been a challenge since the first case, she said. You have people who still say it is not real. You have people who say it is a cold. You have people who say what is the big deal. You have people who say it is all a government plot.

Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious disease specialist, said he isnt surprised by the outbreaks as camps reopen this year after being closed last summer. He said he had his doubts that some camps thought through all the implications of camping during COVID.

Ideally, he said, camps would require vaccinations for adults and for campers who are old enough, and would take other measures such as serving meals in shifts, putting fewer youngsters in the cabins and requiring anyone unvaccinated to wear masks indoors.

In the Houston area, health officials reported more than 130 youths and adults tested positive for the virus in cases connected to a church camp. The pastor of Clear Creek Community Church in League City said the outbreak happened in two waves, first at the camp and then when people returned home in late June.

In some cases, entire families are sick, pastor Bruce Wesley said on the churchs Facebook page.

In Illinois, health officials said 85 teens and adults at a Christian youth camp in mid-June tested positive, including an unvaccinated young adult who was hospitalized, and some people from the camp attended a nearby conference, leading to 11 additional cases.

The Illinois Department of Public Health said all the campers were eligible for the vaccine, but only a handful of campers and staff had received it. The camp didnt check peoples vaccination status or require masks indoors, according to the department.

The health department in Leon County, Florida, which includes Tallahassee, tweeted this month that an increase in cases there also was tied in part to summer camp outbreaks.

And in Kansas, about 50 people have been infected in an outbreak linked to a church summer camp held last month not far from Wichita.

Elsewhere the situation is better. The roughly 225 overnight camps and thousands of day camps run by local YMCAs are mostly open this summer, though with slightly reduced capacity, said Paul McEntire, chief operating officer for YMCA of the USA.

McEntire said he is aware of a few cases of Y camps where people tested positive for the virus, but no instances of significant spread. He said many camps are taking precautions such as serving meals in shifts or outside and trying to keep youngsters in separate groups. Most are requiring masks indoors, but he acknowledged it can be a challenge.

To be frank, there are some parents that didnt want to send their kids unless they were assured that masking was being used indoors, he said. There were others that took the exact opposite viewpoint.

Ahead of the school year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance last week to say vaccinated teachers and students dont need to wear masks inside and 3-foot distancing of desks is not necessary for the fully vaccinated.

On Monday, California announced rules for public schools that let students and teachers sit as close to each other as they want but still require them to wear masks. Other state and district officials have adopted a patchwork of coronavirus regulations for schools.

Summer camp outbreaks certainly could be a precursor to what happens when youngsters return to classrooms in the fall, said Dr. Michelle Prickett, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago. The outcome will depend on vaccination rates and which virus variants are prevalent, she said.

We just need to be vigilant, Prickett said.

Schaffner said he thinks schools wont face similar outbreaks because they tend to be more structured and disciplined than camps and because most got used to making adjustments over the past year and a half. But he said the best way to reduce the risk is to get most people vaccinated.

There are many parts of the country that simply have not grasped this, he said.

It could be several months before regulators make a decision on authorizing shots for children under 12. Studies on such youngsters are still going on.

Meanwhile, in Tennessee, the states top vaccination official was fired Monday after facing scrutiny from Republican state lawmakers over her departments outreach efforts to vaccinate teenagers against COVID-19. Dr. Michelle Fiscus told The Tennessean newspaper about her termination. A Health Department official said the agency would not comment.

The Department of Health instructed county-level employees recently to stop vaccination events aimed at teens and to halt any online outreach to them, The Tennessean previously reported, citing emails it obtained.

Ford, the teacher whose daughter narrowly escaped getting COVID-19 at a Missouri summer camp, is worried.

With the uptick in cases, I am concerned that we wont be able to go back to normal, and we will have to ask people to mask and stuff, she said, and I have a feeling that there is going to be a huge argument.

Read this article:

Summer camps hit with COVID outbreaks are schools next? - Associated Press

Summer Vacation Is Not Going to Keep Coronavirus at Bay. Only Jabs Will.  Bloomberg

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Summer Vacation Is Not Going to Keep Coronavirus at Bay. Only Jabs Will. - Bloomberg

(Washington, DC) The Districts reported data for July 9-11, 2021 includes 71 new positive coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, bringing the Districts overall positive case total to 49,526.

The District reported that one additional resident lost her life due to COVID-19.

Tragically, 1,144 District residents have lost their lives due to COVID-19.

Visit coronavirus.dc.gov/data for interactive data dashboards or to download COVID-19 data.

Below is a summary of the Districts current ReOpening Metrics.

Below is the Districts aggregated total of positive COVID-19 cases, sorted by age and gender.

Patient Gender

Total Positive Cases

%

Female

%

Male

%

Unknown

%

All

49,526*

100

25,810

100

23,554

100

162

100

Unknown

64

<1

20

<1

39

<1

5

3

0-18

6,429

13

3,193

12

3,214

14

22

14

19-30

13,330

27

7,322

28

5,955

25

53

33

31-40

9,822

20

5,053

20

4,733

20

36

22

41-50

6,338

13

3,196

12

3,129

13

13

8

51-60

5,843

12

2,880

11

2,949

13

14

9

61-70

4,213

9

2,118

8

2,089

9

6

4

71-80

2,115

4

1,146

5

964

4

5

3

More:

Coronavirus Data for July 9-11, 2021 | mayormb - Executive Office of the Mayor

The Lambda variant has become the dominant version of the Covid-19 coronavirus in Peru. Here a poll ... [+] worker sanitizes a polling station in Lima on April 10, 2021. (Photo by ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP via Getty Images)

Compared to all the attention that the Alpha and then Delta variants have been getting, theres been relative silence of the Lambda until now.

The Lambda variant of the Covid-19 coronavirus is not to be confused with the lambada, which is the forbidden dance. But this variant has been progressively dancing its way around the globe. Its already become the dominant strain in Peru, which has had the highest Covid-19 case fatality rate and deaths per capita in the world. It has also spread to at least 29 countries in five different World Health Organization (WHO) regions. So the question is: will this version of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2) Lambda the world into even more trouble?

Its hard to say right now. Much to learn about the Lambda variant there is, as Yoda would say. Currently, the Lambda variant is like your dad wearing a one-legged cat suit thats way too tight for the first time. You can see some disturbing signs but you cant quite see or figure out everything thats going on yet.

The Lambda variant has been around for while. It was first detected in Peru back in August 2020 and has steadily grown in presence there. Eventually, the Lambda variant became the alpha or the top dog of Covid-19 coronavirus strains in Peru. Since April 2021, sequencing of Covid-19 coronavirus cases in the country has found the Lambda variant in over 80% of the samples. The Covid-19 pandemic has hit Peru particularly hard too. As of July 9, Peru has had a total of 2,074,186 reported Covid-19 cases with 193,909 of those resulting in death, yielding a 9.3% case fatality ratio and a 596.45 deaths per 100,000 people in the population, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. Those numbers have made Peru number one globally in both categories. And in this case, being number one is not good.

Peru has had the highest per capita Covid-19 death toll in the world. (Photo by Raul Sifuentes/Getty ... [+] Images)

A June 15 WHO report noted elevated prevalence of the Lambda variant in multiple other South American countries as well, including Chile, Ecuador, and Argentina. According to a Public Health England report, as of June 24, 2021, this variant has appeared in 525 samples from the U.S., 87 in Germany, 86 in Argentina, 57 in Mexico, 43 in Spain, 19 in Israel, 15 in Colombia, 13 in France, eight in Egypt, seven in Switzerland, six in the United Kingdom, five in Italy, three in Brazil, and three in Canada as well as in single samples from the Netherlands, Aruba, Portugal, Denmark, Czech Republic, Turkey, Australia, Curacao, and Zimbabwe.

This version of the virus, otherwise known as the C.37 variant, made the WHOs Variants of Interest (VOI) list on June 14, 2021, joining other variants like the Eta, Iota, and Kappa ones. These Greek lettered names all may sound like fraternities or sororities but if someone asks you to rush the Lambda variant, its better to say, get the heck away from me. In this case, interest doesnt mean oh, that would be cool like a statue of Ariana Grande made out of hot dogs. Instead, interest here means that public health officials should watch the variant very closely because it could become a major threat. A VOI is a version of the virus that, in the words of the WHO, has genetic changes that are predicted or known to affect virus characteristics such as transmissibility, disease severity, immune escape, diagnostic or therapeutic escape and that is spreading so that it may be an emerging risk to global public health.

A VOI is one step below a Variant of Concern (VOC). The Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Gamma variants have already made the VOC list. The Lambda variant doesnt qualify as a VOC at this moment because studies have not yet confirmed that it is more transmissible, causes worse illness, or better able to get past the Covid-19 vaccines or treatments than other versions of the virus.

The key words here are have not yet confirmed. There just havent been enough studies so far to draw any strong conclusions about the Lambda variant. The situation in Peru does raise concerns that the Lambda variant may be more transmissible and more likely to result in worse Covid-19 outcomes. However, other factors can affect the spread of the virus and resulting death rates such as access to health care and the presence or lack of control measures such as social distancing and face mask use. Therefore, Perus higher death rates may not be solely due to the characteristics of the virus. The spread of this variant to so many other countries does lend more support, though, to the possibility that it is indeed more transmissible.

Of course, every time a new variant emerges, a big question is how well currently available Covid-19 vaccines may protect against the variant. Early indications are that the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines may still offer good protection, as you can see by this tweet from Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine and Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology and Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine:

Hotez cited a pre-print thats been uploaded on to the bioRxiv website. This pre-print describes a study that took antibodies from the blood of people who had had Covid-19 previously or had received the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines and determined whether these antibodies were able to neutralize the Lambda variant of the Covid-19 coronavirus. The not so good news is that the Lambda variant was able to infect cells more readily than the original version of the virus. The good news is that the antibodies seemed to neutralize the Lambda variant. This provided evidence that the currently available Covid-19 mRNA vaccines may offer good protection against the Lambda variant and that the Regeneron monoclonal antibody therapy cocktail would remain effective against this version.

Keep in mind though that a pre-print is not the same as a peer-reviewed publication in a respectable scientific journal. All you need to upload a pre-print is a computer, Internet access, and someone besides a hamster to press the right keys on the keyboard. Hamsters are not always great with keyboards because they can end up typing out expletives. They also may trade dogecoin if they can access your computer. More studies are needed to determine whether the Lambda variant is actually more transmissible and more likely to cause more severe Covid-19 and whether it can get around the protection offered by currently available Covid-19 vaccines.

Anyone who understands the science of coronavirus replications and mutation will understand that variants will be a continuing threat until enough people are vaccinated and pubic health officials get the pandemic under control. Variants are not a scare campaign as the following tweet suggests:

The media isnt rolling out these variants, its viral replication thats doing this. Again, this is science. Continuing to overlook the science will continue to extend the current situation:

The emergence and spread of the Lambda variant is a reminder that the Covid-19 coronavirus is not going to stay the same. The virus is not like that adult who peaked in high school and still insists that beer funneling and giving people atomic wedgies are cool. Instead, the Covid-19 coronavirus is more like Madonna in that it continues to evolve and adapt to the times. Like a drunk person trying make photocopies of his or her butt, every time the virus replicates or makes more copies of itself, it can make mistakes. These mistakes result in mutations in the genetic codes of the resulting copies of the virus. Such mutants are in effect new variants.

Thats why its so important to slow the spread of the virus as much as possible at least until enough people can be vaccinated to break the chains of transmission. As long as the Covid-19 coronavirus remains so widespread, unvaccinated people can serve as variant factories. In other words, when you dont protect yourself against the virus, your body serve as a cheap motel. The viruses can essentially say, your body is a wonderland, I'll use my spike proteins. This isnt exactly what John Mayer has sung about because he is not a gigantic virus. But its close. Getting vaccinated wont completely protect you against getting infected, since the vaccine is not like a impenetrable concrete full-body condom. However, the vaccines do offer very good protection and may make the virus effectively say, Damn, baby, you frustrate me.

If you arent vaccinated, its best to maintain other Covid-19 precautions like wearing face masks and social distancing. This not only will protect you but also protect the rest of society by slowing the emergence of variants. Not slowing the emergence of variants could prolong the pandemic and get us to a point where we have fewer and fewer Greek letter to name the new variants.

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Lambda Variant Of Covid-19 Coronavirus Is Spreading, What You Need To Know - Forbes

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP)

Florida health officials reported an increase in COVID-19 cases and a higher positive test rate over the past week.

The number of virus cases in Florida rose by about 8,000 compared with the week before, for a total of 23,747 new cases, the state Department of Health reported Friday.

New cases of the coronavirus have been on the rise in Florida over the past month. The rate of positive tests was 7.8% last week after trending at about 4% positivity in recent weeks.

There were 172 deaths in Florida from COVID-19 last week, the health department reported.

More than 2,300 people were hospitalized in Florida with COVID-19 for the week of June 30 to July 6, according to the latest White House report. In comparison, 1,868 were hospitalized the previous week.

The state has recorded at least 2.4 million coronavirus cases and 38,901 deaths since the pandemic began, state figures show.

Officials also said the total number of Floridians who have been fully or partially vaccinated at around 11 million, or 58% of Floridians who are 12 and older.

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FLORIDA Florida reports rise in coronavirus cases over the past week WINK NEWS - Wink News

Scientists have long been interested in creating portable devices that can quickly and painlessly screen a person for disease simply by taking a whiff of their breath. But delivering on this dream has proved to be a challenge. Different diseases may cause similar breath changes. Diet can affect the chemicals someone exhales, as can smoking and alcohol consumption, potentially complicating disease detection.

Still, scientists say, advances in sensor technology and machine learning, combined with new research and investment spurred by the pandemic, mean that the moment for disease-detecting breathalyzers may have finally arrived.

Ive been working in the area of breath research for almost 20 years now, said Cristina Davis, an engineer at the University of California, Davis. And during that time, weve seen it progress from a nascent stage to really being something that I think is close to being deployed.

In May, when musicians from dozens of countries descended on Rotterdam, the Netherlands, for the Eurovision Song Contest, they had to pass a breath test before they were allowed onstage. The musicians were asked to exhale into a device the size of a water bottle called the SpiroNose, which analyzed the chemical compounds in their breath to detect signatures of a coronavirus infection. If the results came back negative, the performers were cleared to compete.

The SpiroNose, made by the Dutch company Breathomix, is just one of many breath-based coronavirus tests under development across the world. In May, Singapores health agency granted provisional authorization to two such tests, made by the domestic companies Breathonix and Silver Factory Technology. And researchers at Ohio State University say they have applied to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for an emergency authorization of their coronavirus breathalyzer.

Its clear now, I think, that you can detect this disease with a breath test, said Paul Thomas, a chemist at Loughborough University in England. This isnt science fiction.

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Breath-Based Coronavirus Tests Are Being Developed - The New York Times

The Netherlands reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, an eightfold increase when compared to last week after most restrictions were lifted despite the rise of the fast-spreading Delta variant.

The National Institute for Public Health (RIVM) said 10,345 new cases were reported on Saturday, the biggest one-day increase since December 25. This compares to 1,146 new cases on the same day last week.

The coronavirus infection rate in the Netherlands has increased much faster than expected since society reopened almost completely on 26 June, the government said in a statement on Friday. Most infections have occurred in nightlife settings and parties with high numbers of people.

Even though the current surge is not posing a threat to vulnerable groups or the capacity of the healthcare system, such high numbers create a risk for people who are not (fully) vaccinated and raises the possibility of new variants, the government said. Some may also suffer from long COVID.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced new measures on Friday in an attempt to stop the unprecedented surge in new cases. These measures focus mainly on nightclubs, music festivals, and restaurants because most of the spread is occurring among young adults.

Fridays announcement followed an urgent advice from the Outbreak Management Team, which expects that pressure on the healthcare system will soon increase, even though it is currently declining. On Friday, only 12 people were admitted to hospital.

If the increase among teenagers and people in their early twenties continues, it will increasingly spread among the unvaccinated population and the vulnerable, and this group amounts to more than 3 million people, the team said in its advice. The pressure on the healthcare system will increase substantially in parallel.

Virologist Marion Koopmans, who is part of the Outbreak Management Team, said tougher restrictions cannot be ruled out if cases continue to rise in the coming days. We are closely watching what happens next week, she told local media.

More than 1.7 million people in the Netherlands have been infected with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, including 17,765 people who died, according to NewsNodes. Nearly 6.5 million people, or 37.1% of the population, is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

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Coronavirus cases in the Netherlands surge more than 800% in one week - BNO News