Don’t look now, but a brand new COVID Strain that officials have already branded as “highly contagious” is blanketing Europe.
Health
Known as VUI-202012/01 (which stands for “variant under investigation” along with the date of 12/01/2020), the new COVID strain was first discovered in the United Kingdom. However, it has since made its way to The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Australia, and likely beyond.
“The spread is being driven by the new variant of the virus,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said during a hastily called press conference over the weekend. “It appears to spread more easily and may be up to 70% more transmissible than the earlier strain.
“This is now spreading very fast,” Johnson continued while raising his country to Alert Level 4 restrictions. “It is with a very heavy heart that I say we cannot continue with Christmas as planned.”
In response to the new coronavirus variant, multiple nations — including Spain, India, and Hong Kong — immediately closed their borders to anyone traveling from the UK (as of this writing, the US was still deciding if it will close its borders). However, the move may be too little too late.
Donald Trump was first alerted to the novel coronavirus in January. However, scientists discovered that the virus was already floating around the US a month or 2 earlier. With that said, if scientists are just now discovering the new COVID strain in Europe, chances are that it has already made its way across all of Europe and the United States and other places around the world, too.
Does that mean we should hit the panic button and freak out? Not necessarily.
According to scientists, viruses regularly come in multiple strains and variants. Although no one knows yet for certain, officials believe this new COVID strain should not kill more people and should not be resistant to the new vaccine currently making its way around the world.
“Any apparent increase in transmission now could equally be due to human behavior during the Christmas period and the increase in movement and social contact associated with it,” said Raina MacIntyre, professor of global biosecurity at the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute.
“This could be just another Adelaide event,” said Stuart Turville, an immunovirologist at the Kirby Institute. He added that answers will only come when scientists have had a chance to test the new variant in the lab, comparing it to previous variants and seeing how it fares.
“Until you get to that point, you can’t really say that the virus is fitter.”
In light of this health news, we should NOT drop our guard and become complacent. Instead, we should all continue to wear a mask, social distance, wash our hands frequently, maintain a social “bubble,” and strongly consider getting the vaccine when it’s our turn.
Thank you for this DJ. I had heard about this new and “more highly contagious” strain of COVID in the UK. Other countries were smart to try to minimize the risk of a full blown exposure as best they can by closing their borders to UK travelers.
We should prepare for exposure because as you point out in your post, our borders are still Open. My guess is the new strain is probably already here.
Trump doesn’t care about America or the American people…not even his followers. So predictably – and true to his nature – once again he has failed Us and will continue to do so. Indeed, these are trying times.
Everyone try to stay safe and be encouraged. “Trouble won’t last always.”