New mutation discovered in California

[Fambo Number Mive]

If Johnson did actually speak to Biden on the phone, I hope he discussed this with Corn Pop.

In late December, scientists in California began searching coronavirus samples for a fast-spreading new variant that had just been identified in Britain.

They found it, though in relatively few samples. But in the process, the scientists made another unwelcome discovery: California had produced a variant of its own.

That mutant, which belongs to a lineage known as CAL.20C, seemed to have popped up in July but lay low till November. Then it began to quickly spread.

CAL.20C accounted for more than half of the virus genome samples collected in Los Angeles laboratories on Jan. 13, according to a new study that has not yet been published...

There's no evidence that CAL.20C is more lethal than other variants. And scientists have to conduct more research to determine whether CAL.20C is in fact more contagious than other forms of the virus.

But Eric Vail, the director of molecular pathology at Cedars-Sinai, said it was possible that CAL.20C is playing a large part in the surge of cases that has overwhelmed Southern California's hospitals. "I'm decently confident that this is a more infectious strain of the virus," Dr. Vail said.

Dr. Charles Chiu, a virologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said that across the state, he and his colleagues are finding the variant in roughly 20 percent to 30 percent of samples being sequenced. "It just popped up under our noses, and now it's rising in multiple counties," he said. "On the whole, it's safe to say it's going to spread outside of California."...

Not sure if this variant will mean that flights from the UK to the USA will be suspended. Maybe they will just suspend flights from the UK to airports in California, which ignores that this strain of the virus is likely in other states by now.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/health/coronavirus-variant-california.html

[MojoJojo]

It's a bit of a non-story if the new strain isn't more lethal or contagious.

[BlodwynPig]

It's a bit of a non-story if the new strain isn't more lethal or contagious.

IF

Non-story?

The story is that the world has got it wrong. Non-essential flights still operating? Capitalism. Society. Lack of imagination. Humanity.