Make Way for the Vaccine-Beating SARS2 Variants

Daily Mail: New Botswana variant with 32 'horrific' mutations is the most evolved Covid strain EVER and could be 'worse than Delta' — as expert says it may have emerged in an HIV patient

British experts have sounded the alarm over a new Covid variant believed to have emerged in Botswana that is the most mutated version of the virus yet.

Only 10 cases of the strain, which could eventually be named 'Nu', have been detected so far.

But it has already been spotted in three countries, suggesting the variant is more widespread.

It carries 32 mutations, many of which suggest it is highly transmissible and vaccine-resistant, and has more alterations to its spike protein than any other variant.

Professor Francois Balloux, a geneticist at University College London, said it likely emerged in a lingering infection in an immunocompromised patient, possibly someone with undiagnosed AIDS.

A vaccine resistant strain of the virus? Duh. Actual science says do not vaccinate in the middle of an outbreak for exactly this reason, especially with a leaky vaccine. It creates far more "randomized trials" for the virus as it tries to figure out how to beat the vaccine.

Luckily, this variant doesn't look like a threat:

Scientists told MailOnline, however, that its unprecedented number of mutations might work against it and make it 'unstable', preventing it from becoming widespread.

They said there was 'no need to be overly concerned' because there were no signs yet that it was spreading rapidly.

Three infections have been detected in Botswana to date and six in South Africa — where variant surveillance is more robust.

One case has also been spotted in a 36-year-old man in Hong Kong who recently returned from the continent.

There are no cases in Britain. But the UK Health Security Agency, which took over from Public Health England, said it was monitoring the situation closely.

The track record of media and scientists doesn't make me confident in their assessment, but for now I'll take their word for it.

This variant also doesn't have a worse-case scenario development of antibody dependent enchancement that would make the virus more deadly to the vaccinated. It does hint that a different worse-case scenario is possible: the pandemic never ends because the vaccines produce variants, while also destroying herd immunity in the population, ensuring a permanent state of totalitarian dictatorshop. Worst-case is science mutates the virus into something with high mortality.

Post Script: I wrote this earlier in the day, but now it looks like the hype train has left the station and is sinking global markets. I'm leaning towards more smoke than fire for now.

PPS: It doesn't bode well that the delta variant emerged after mass vaccination and now this emerges after mass boosters.