As if this isn't scary enough already

[Anny_Middon]

Two stories came up on my newsfeed today.

The first:

Fifteen children in New York City have been hospitalized with symptoms compatible with a multi-system inflammatory syndrome possibly linked to the coronavirus, according to a health alert issued by the New York City Health Department on Monday.

The second:

Scientists have identified a new strain of the coronavirus that has become dominant worldwide and appears to be more contagious than the versions that spread in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study led by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The new strain appeared in February in Europe, migrated quickly to the East Coast of the United States and has been the dominant strain across the world since mid-March, the scientists wrote.

In addition to spreading faster, it may make people vulnerable to a second infection after a first bout with the disease, the report warned.

[Fretful_Porpentine]

Most scientists do not seem to be too concerned about the second story. See here.

[ThelmaLou]

@Fretful_Porpentine

Most scientists do not seem to be too concerned about the second story. See here.

Thank you for this.

<**ThelmaLou **climbs down from the chandelier.>

[panache45]

@ThelmaLou

<**ThelmaLou **climbs down from the chandelier.>

Didn’t think there was room up there for both of us, didja?

[asahi]

Coronaviruses are good at mutating, which is a bad news/good news proposition. The bad news is that they can mutate - potentially into something more contagious and even deadlier. The good news is, they can mutate just as easily into something harmless or something that eventually leads to its own extinction.

[Anny_Middon]

@Fretful_Porpentine

Most scientists do not seem to be too concerned about the second story. See here.

Thanks – I’m glad to hear that.

Maybe I missed it (no coffee yet this morning) but do they think that having had the first strain will give you immunity to the second strain? That’s the part I found most scary – that people who test positive for the antibodies from having had the early strain will go out and about, not realizing they can get the second, more contagious strain.

[Grim_Render]

@Fretful_Porpentine

Most scientists do not seem to be too concerned about the second story. See here.

The objections do not seem unlike any other paper that comes up for peer review. In other words, that is pretty standard. The theory does explain a number of issues that were otherwise puzzling.

[Fretful_Porpentine]

@Anny_Middon

Thanks – I’m glad to hear that.

Maybe I missed it (no coffee yet this morning) but do they think that having had the first strain will give you immunity to the second strain? That’s the part I found most scary – that people who test positive for the antibodies from having had the early strain will go out and about, not realizing they can get the second, more contagious strain.

This thread seems to suggest this particular mutation won’t do that, although it’s possible that another type of mutation will.

[kayaker]

I thought this was going to be about the giant mutant killer murder hornets.

[ThelmaLou]

@panache45

Didn’t think there was room up there for both of us, didja?

I wondered whose elbow that was.