Saturday, May 28, 2022
No Result
View All Result
Money Secrets Center
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Privacy Policy
  • Whitelisting
Money Secrets Center
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Privacy Policy
  • Whitelisting
No Result
View All Result
Plugin Install : Cart Icon need WooCommerce plugin to be installed.
Money Secrets Center
No Result
View All Result

U.S. officials keep close watch on the ‘delta plus’ Covid mutation as it spreads in the U.K.

by
October 22, 2021
in Latest News
0 0
0
Home Latest News

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies before a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing at the U.S. Capitol on May 11, 2021.

Jim Lo Scalzo | Pool | Reuters

U.S. health officials are keeping a close eye on an emerging Covid-19 subvariant, dubbed “delta plus,” that some scientists say may be more contagious than the already highly transmissible delta variant.

Formally known as AY.4.2, delta plus includes two new mutations to the spike protein, A222V and Y145H, which allow the virus to enter the body. Those mutations have been found in other Covid variants, so it’s unclear how dramatically those changes affect the virus.

Francois Balloux, director of the Genetics Institute at University College London, said it could be 10%-15% more contagious than delta, which first appeared in India and spreads easier than Ebola, SARS, MERS and the 1918 Spanish flu, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Delta has an R-naught, or reproductive rate, of eight or nine, according to CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, meaning that every person who has Covid will spread it to up to nine other people. The “wild type” or original strain of Covid had an estimated R-naught of about three. Someone infected with the delta variant carries 1,000 times the viral load of the original Covid strain.

India’s Ministry of Health reported in June that delta plus was more transmissible than the delta variant, adding that the subtype binds more strongly to lung cell receptors and could even reduce the effectiveness of monoclonal antibody treatments.

The mutation has been detected in the U.S., but there hasn’t been a noticeable uptick in delta plus cases nationwide, Walensky said at a White House Covid briefing Wednesday.

“We particularly monitor for sublineages that could impact therapeutics, such as monoclonal antibodies and vaccines,” Walensky said. “At this time, there is no evidence that the sublineage AY.4.2 impacts the effectiveness of our current vaccines or therapeutics.”

The AY.4.2 subvariant has been detected in at least five cases in the U.S. since August: in Washington, D.C., California, North Carolina, Washington state and Massachusetts, according to Outbreak.info. The website collects data from GISAID, a global genomic database on Covid and influenza cases.

Top health authorities have cautioned for weeks that more powerful and potentially vaccine-resistant Covid variants could develop as long as widespread outbreaks continue to occur, fueled by billions of people worldwide who remain unvaccinated. White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said in August that the U.S. could be “in trouble” if another mutation surpassed delta, asking the unvaccinated to get their shots in hopes of curbing a surge that crushed the nation’s health-care systems this summer.

Delta plus could also eventually affect the age groups eligible to receive Covid booster doses, Dr. Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration’s lead vaccine regulator, said Wednesday night. The FDA and CDC have authorized Covid boosters for a wide array of adults in the U.S. from all three manufacturers in the U.S.: Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.

“The exact age of that will be based on what we see of the emerging situation, which is quite dynamic right now because we continue to see reports of new variants coming up,” Marks said. “And we’re also seeing changes in the epidemiology of Covid-19 in our country right now with new hotspots coming up even as certain places die down.”

Concerns over delta plus are running high in the U.K., where officials are battling a surge in cases and facing a renewed health crisis. Delta plus cases represented roughly 6% of all sequenced Covid cases as of the week beginning Sept. 27, according to the latest data from the country’s Health Security Agency. The sublineage is “increasing in frequency” in the U.K., the agency noted, and doctors from the National Health Service Confederation in London are calling for a return to stricter Covid protocols heading into the winter.

But global health leaders are urging the public not to panic. Though the emergence of a Covid subtype isn’t the same as an entirely new variant evolving, keeping track of delta’s progression could allow the medical community to better understand the mutation, Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri, Covid-19 incident manager at the World Health Organization’s regional branch for the Americas, said at a briefing Oct. 6.

“Looking to these additional changes, it may help researchers to track the variants on a fine scale,” Aldighieri said. “But they do not imply any functional or biological difference.”

— CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt in London contributed to this report.

ShareTweetShare

Next Post

Two hedge funds sell stakes in Trump SPAC firm DWAC after merger news, big stock price rise

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

email

Enter Your Information Below To Receive Latest News And Articles

Please Enter Your Email Address:

By opting in you agree to our Privacy Policy. You also agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Remember that you can opt-out any time, we hate spam too!

  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

China may be moving toward easy monetary policy, but it will have to tread delicately

October 22, 2021

Plug Power Leads Five Alt-Energy Plays Near Buy Points

October 31, 2021

FTC sues to block Nvidia’s $40 billion acquisition of Arm

December 2, 2021

The Essential Watchlist for Best Stocks Under $2

October 22, 2021

The Best Stocks Under $50 You Can Explore Right Now

0

The Essential Watchlist for Best Stocks Under $2

0

China Evergrande set to avert default as it reportedly pays off bond interest

0

‘The UK really is in trouble’: Doctors warn of a dire Covid crisis as officials reject restrictions

0

Market Extra: Some Sturm Ruger shareholders are seeking a ‘human rights impact assessment’ of the gun maker. Does your ETF hold the stock?

May 27, 2022

Personal Finance Daily: New Yorkers sued by debt collectors can now get legal advice from non-lawyers — here’s what that could mean for low-income consumers across the country and retailers follow Snap’s warning, but some buck the bad trend

May 27, 2022

Alphabet, Facebook, and 4 More Bargain Stocks to Buy Now

May 27, 2022

Here’s how much money you would have lost if you bought a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT a month ago

May 27, 2022
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Privacy Policy
  • Whitelisting
All rights reserved by www.moneysecretscenter.com
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Privacy Policy
  • Whitelisting

All rights reserved by www.moneysecretscenter.com

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In