| Deadly coronavirus strain in France slipped through testing net, says study |
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| 11 May, 2021 • French researchers say a variant in the country’s west proved elusive to standard swab sampling A variant of the coronavirus that caused a deadly outbreak in France can evade standard tests, detectable only deep in the lungs, according to a new study. In a paper published on the preprint service medRxiv.org on Monday, researchers in western France said that only 15 per cent of patients in their study who had the B.1.616 variant tested positive in standard nasopharyngeal swabs, versus the 97 per cent hit rate for other variants circulating in France. And nearly half of the patients died in less than a month, a much higher rate than the 16 per cent mortality among other hospitalised Covid-19 patients. “If the mutation escapes surveillance, the whole system will collapse,” the Beijing-based researcher said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue. In early January, the Lannion hospital in Cotes-d’Armor had an unexpected outbreak of an infectious disease, the paper said. The patients had the typical symptoms of Covid-19, but most of their standard RT-PCR swab tests came back negative. The B.1.616 variant in the patients has nine mutations across its genome, including one known as E484K at the spike protein. The mutation is also present in two variants of concern from South Africa and Brazil and can allow the virus to bypass immune protections formed with previous infections or vaccination, according to Fillatre and colleagues. The French researchers were surprised by the variant’s high fatality rate – it killed 44 per cent of its victims, or nearly three times the rate of the B.1.1.7 variant first detected in Britain. But the French variant has one weakness. The researchers compared its spread to other variants such as B.1.1.7, and found that the outbreaks were limited mostly to small clusters. To avoid being detected, the virus might have sacrificed some of its transmission potential, and thus lost an edge in competition with other variants prevailing in local communities such as the British strain, the researchers said. |
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3133103/deadly-covid-19-strain-france-slips-through-testing-net-study? |
| AFC confirms North Korea's decision to pull out of World Cup qualifiers |
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| North Korea 15:05 May 16, 2021 SEOUL, May 16 (Yonhap) -- The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) confirmed Sunday that North Korea has withdrawn from Asian qualifiers for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. "The AFC has today confirmed the withdrawal of the DPR Korea Football Association from the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023," the association said on its website. Earlier this month, the Korea Football Association (KFA) said its North Korean counterpart, known as the DPR Korea Football Association, had sent an official document to the AFC to express its intention not to participate in the second round of World Cup qualifiers to be hosted by South Korea next month. The North reportedly cited fears of coronavirus infection among the reasons for its withdrawal. The AFC then said it would try to convince Pyongyang to reconsider its decision, but the attempt appears to have been unsuccessful. South Korea, which was scheduled to host North Korea, Turkmenistan, Lebanon and Sri Lanka in Group H matches, will play only three games as a result. The AFC said it will announce further details on the standings in Group H. |
| https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20210516002200325?section=nk/nk |
Chinese inactive vaccines use the original whole inactive virus, while other countries such as Israel are using the gene therapy vaccines that either emulate the virus by using the flu virus or use a small part of the original virus but cannot deal with mutations as a result. Stupid USA and co nations think their new gene therapy vaccines is better than the vaccine we have been using for centuries.Which efficiency of Chinese vaccines are you talking about? The one from cow dung vaccine or chyawanprash?
ONLY VACCINES?—What if we dropped all masks/mitigation, and only rely on vaccines? Well, with 70% fully vaccinated, even if vaccines have 97% efficacy against all transmission (they don’t)— we can only stop SARS-CoV-2 1.0 slower strain. Forget B117, P1, B1617 strains.
https://archive.is/L6uqC/58b6113d75252ddb7f44c4d8828b26ba7f0516b1/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20210514223147/https://archive.is/L6uqC/58b6113d75252ddb7f44c4d8828b26ba7f0516b1/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20210514215819/https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1393090966928637952 ; https://archive.is/L6uqC
▲ 1. What if we dropped all masks/mitigation, and only rely on vaccines? We can only stop SARS-CoV-2 1.0 slower strain. Forget B117/P1/B1617. 13 May 2021.
Conclusion
It requires 70% population vaccinated, plus at least 50% vaccine efficacy against transmission, plus wearing masks, plus mitigation measures to hold back current surge!
But no nation has achieved a 70% population's vaccination rate yet, with Seychelles[2] in top position, at only 62%!
The alternative is to close the border for keeping the new strains from entering.
Proof, failing to totally close its border until the end of the pandemic in all other nations, another role model country bites the dust, with Singapore that is returning back to square one, to the lockdown-like conditions it last imposed a year ago, banning dining-in and limiting gatherings to two people, as a rising number of untraceable virus infections pressures one of the most successful places in the world at Covid containment.
https://archive.ph/Viv0v/98d274a6134e141d5d073db688a8a11bde0cf9c5/scr.png ; http://web.archive.org/web/20210514221124/https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1393078907218370561 ; https://archive.ph/Viv0v
▲ 3. Failing to totally close its border until the end of the pandemic in other nations, Singapore is returning back to square one!
