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Hello friends, this is Adam from India after so many years I am seeing this Heavennet. In India we are in the midst of great Pandemic COVID19 new strain and many are dying daily. It’s really panic situation here. Please uphold us in your prayers. Thanking you all…God bless.
India’s ‘double mutation’ covid virus variant is worrying the world:
With India’s daily tally of Covid-19 infections surging by records, public health
experts worry that a new — possibly more virulent — coronavirus variant could be
racing through the crowded nation of more than 1.3 billion people.
The new variant, which has a so-called double mutation, is thought to be fueling
India’s deadlier new wave of cases that has made it the world’s second worst-hit
country, surpassing Brazil again, and has already begun to overwhelm its hospitals
and crematoriums. India has reported more than 14.5 million Covid cases so far and
more than 175,600 fatalities.
“This is a variant of interest we are following,” Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health
Organization’s technical lead officer on Covid, told reporters Friday. “Having two of
these mutations, which have been seen in other variants around the world, are
concerning,” she said, adding that there was a similarity with mutations that increase
transmission as well as reduce neutralization, possibly stunting the ability of vaccines
to curb them.
The new strain underscores the insidious nature of viruses and threatens to thwart
containment efforts in India, despite measures such as the world’s largest lockdown
last year. An exploding outbreak in India risks undoing a hard-won victory over the
pathogen for others, too, especially as this strain has now jumped to at least 10 other
countries.
Here’s what we know so far:
How did the “double mutation” variant emerge?
The new variant, called B.1.617, was initially detected in India with two mutations —
the E484Q and L452R. It was first reported late last year by a scientist in India and
more details were presented before the WHO on Monday, according to Van Kerkhove.
Viruses mutate all the time, as part of evolutionary biology. Some mutations weaken
the virus while others may make it stronger, enabling it to proliferate faster or cause
more infections.
India’s health ministry first acknowledged the presence of a “double mutant” at the
end of March, but has downplayed it since. While it’s a variant of interest, it “has not
been stamped as a ‘variant of concern’ so as to say that it is more lethal or more
infectious,” Aparna Mukherjee, a scientist at the Indian Council of Medical Research,
which works under the nation’s health ministry, told Bloomberg TV on Friday.
The double mutation has been found in several countries like Australia, Belgium,
Germany, Ireland, Namibia, New Zealand, Singapore, the U.K. and the U.S., according
to an April 16 statement from the Indian government. “Higher transmissibility of this
variant is not established as yet,” it said.
Is it causing the record surge in infections in India?
Genome sequencing indicates the variant as a possible culprit, although the Indian
government hasn’t confirmed it.
The average prevalence of the variant surged to as high as 52% of samples sequenced
in April from almost nothing in January, according to website tracker outbreak.info,
which uses data from global repository GISAID.
In some districts in Maharashtra state — home to Mumbai and epicenter of the
current wave that’s triggered fresh lockdown-like rules — the prevalence of this
variant was more than 60%, according to Anurag Agrawal, director of the state-run
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research’s genomics institute that’s conducting
sequencing. The B.1.617 was present in samples from about 10 Indian states and
while the percentage may vary, it was expected to rise as “it has two critical mutations
that make it more likely to transmit and escape prior immunity,” Agrawal said.
Both mutations are known to decrease — although not completely eliminate — the
binding of the antibodies created by infection and vaccination, according to Jesse
Bloom, an associate professor for genome sciences and microbiology at the University
of Washington.
“Mutations at sites E484 and L452 have been observed separately, but this is the first
major viral lineage that combines the two,” said Bloom. “I do think that this new viral
variant is important to monitor.”
“We did the math — we do believe that a lot of the increase in the reproduction
number can be explained by these mutations,” Nithya Balasubramanian, the head of
health-care research at Bernstein India, told Bloomberg TV this week. “So, yes, the
mutations are a big cause for worry.”
After being complacent in mapping virus genomes in recent months — India did
sequencing for less than 1% positive samples as of last month — the country is now
scrambling to cover lost ground. “We are attempting to do at least 5% of whatever
samples are there,” said ICMR’s Mukherjee.
“It looks like that it is spreading faster than pre-existing variants,” said Rakesh
Mishra, the Hyderabad-based director of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular
Biology — another Indian lab doing genome sequencing of Covid samples. “Sooner or
later, it will become prevalent in the whole country, given the way it is spreading.”
Has it been found outside India?
This variant has been detected in at least 10 other countries, including the U.S., the
U.K., Australia and New Zealand, according to the situation report on outbreak.info.
As of April 16, 408 sequences in the B.1.617 lineage have been detected of which 265
were found in India, the report shows. A surveillance report by the U.K. government
said it has found 77 cases in England and Scotland so far, designating it as a “Variant
Under Investigation.”
New Zealand has temporarily suspended arrivals of its citizens and residents from
India due to the spike in the number returning with Covid. Brazil was also shunned as
a Covid superspreader by its neighbors who were nervous about the virus strain next
door.
India’s second wave — given its size and rapid pace — will worry other nations that
have just about managed their own outbreaks after weeks of economy-devastating
lockdowns.
Is it deadlier than other variants out there?
Researchers are still trying to figure that out. The features of the double mutant
variant are under investigation, but the L452R mutation is well characterized in U.S
studies, according to Agrawal. It increases viral transmission by around 20% and
reduces antibody efficacy by more than 50%, he said.
Globally, three worrisome variants that have so far emerged in the U.K., South Africa
and Brazil have caused particular concern. Studies suggest they are more contagious,
and some evidence points to one of them being more deadly while another drives
reinfections.
This double mutant strain, first found in India, has begun troubling virologists
everywhere.
“The B.1.617 variant has all the hallmarks of a very dangerous virus,” William A.
Haseltine, a former professor at Harvard Medical School wrote in Forbes on April 12.
“We must do all that is possible to identify its spread and to contain it.”
Do vaccines work against it?
It’s hard to know for sure without adequate data and research. India is testing
whether the new variants, including the B.1.617, are capable of “immune escape or
not,” according to ICMR’s Mukherjee.
Immune escape refers to a pathogen’s ability to evade human bodies’ immunity
response. This means antibodies created after vaccination or prior infection may not
protect a person from getting infected. If the new India variant shows “immune
escape” behavior, this would have deep ramifications for India’s vaccination program,
which has picked up after a sluggish start and administered almost 120 million doses
so far.
India has currently authorized three vaccines. Two of them are already in use while
the third, Russia’s Sputnik V, was approved this week. India also fast-tracked approval
for foreign vaccines this week. All of these efforts risk being jeopardized if the shots
turn out to be less effective against this double mutation variant.Adam….So glad to hear from you again brother. I and I hope all here, will pray for you and your family, and the nation of India.
Adam, your good and sound reasoning has always been a blessing to us all here brother, I know you are a very Bessey person, but try going in on our bible dissuasions more if you have time brother, miss you.
peace and love to you and yours……….gene
Hello Brother Gene, it’s a joy to hear you after so many years. Thanks for your concern for me and my family. We are safe here by the grace of God in the midst of worst crisis. I know I miss all of you in Heavennet but due to some personal reasons I opted out of these unending discussions. Hope you are all doing well there.
Please take care brother…love you.
Hi Adam from India.
What city or state are you from?
I visited India 30 years ago.
Went to Delhi and ventured north into the Himalayas from there.
Beautiful landscapes in that part of India.
Here in New Zealand we managed to stop the virus, so life is almost normal here.
Do you think the vaccine will end the pandemic?
Hello Proclaimer,
Thanks for your post to me. I am glad you had visited India. Yes Himalayas are the most beautiful landscapes of India. We are in the middle of Second wave of COVID19. Lots of people are dying here for the past two months. Experts say India has achieved its peak now. Our daily deaths crossed 4500 which is the worst in the world. I lost my friends too. We are in panic situation.
Yes experts say Vaccines are effective but not full proof. But our Vaccination process is dead slow for want of Vaccines. It may take another six months to complete vaccination for adults above 18 years. But we are already hearing about third wave too which may affect the younger people including children.
It’s good that New Zealand effectively managed the situation.
Thanks for your concern….Adam
Hi proclaimer I am from South India and my city is Visakhapatnam a costal town. But I am working in North Eastern City, Guwahati. I am a Government Telecommunication Officer here.
Here are some photos I took in my short stay in India.
I have fond memories of this time.
Hi Proclaimer, thanks for the pics but 1990 is more than 30 years now. India now changed a lot especially New Delhi our capital city.
Multiple Researchers At Chinese Lab In Wuhan Were Hospitalized With COVID-19-Like Symptoms In November 2019: U.S. Intelligence Report
What you were not allowed to utter is slowly coming to light.
Yes you are right brother it seems COVID19 was man made. How pathetic it would be if it is proved. What havoc it has created on our lives especially in India. We lost many loved ones and many Christian Pastors and believers. It is so much deadly and fearful. Life is so much miserable here. The death count already crossed 300,000 by now in India and daily count is still more than 3700.
Explosive study claims to prove Chinese scientists created COVID
It was during their COVID-19 vaccine research that the pair came across “unique fingerprints” indicating the virus didn’t come from nature, they said. The tell-tale clue: a rare finding in the COVID-carrying virus of a row of four amino acids, which give off a positive charge and bond to negative human cells. “The laws of physics mean that you cannot have four positively charged amino acids in a row,” Dalgleish told the Daily Mail. “The only way you can get this is if you artificially manufacture it.”
https://www.foxnews.com/world/explosive-study-claims-to-prove-chinese-scientists-created-covid
Oh! OMG….what is happening in my world? The so called world leaders are playing with innocent lives. In India all religious leaders are interpreting this Pandemic as God’s wrath. One thing I realised from this Pandemic is that there is no God or religion or creed which could answer the agony and tragedy. COVID19 brought all these so called religious leaders to keep mum and have no answers for this, as so many good Pastors and good Christians passed away during these days. So many children lost both their parents and many lost their earning member in the family. We lost the meaning of living in the world. The list go on and on….
Has anyone have the answer to this man made Pandemic and Calamity?
Jesus said things like this would happen before the end.
Luke 21:10.
Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be massive earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrible sights and great signs from heaven.
Hi Proclaimer,
Then He continued by saying to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be massive earthquakes, and in various places plagues and famines; and there will be terrible sights and great signs from heaven.
I know this is not the thread for arguing such theological Dogma. I don’t think Jesus was meant about these man made Pandemics. He was talking to the First Century crowds in their own context. Even if you take the latest Apocalyptic book Revelation it never talks about future times. All its imagery and symbols like horses, swords etc were all about its own time period the First and Second Centuries.
Let’s depend on scientific information than these religious Dogma.
I know this is not the thread for arguing such theological Dogma. I don’t think Jesus was meant about these man made Pandemics. He was talking to the First Century crowds in their own context. Even if you take the latest Apocalyptic book Revelation it never talks about future times. All its imagery and symbols like horses, swords etc were all about its own time period the First and Second Centuries.
That is not correct gadam. It was specifically about the end of the age. Yes Jesus predicted the siege of Jerusalem and some events that would take place before the end, even in the first century. He even said, that it wouldn’t be the end yet, then tells of signs that would signify that.
Jesus left the temple and was walking away when his disciples came up to him to call his attention to its buildings. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
As for the Book of Revelation, it is your decision to not hear the words of the prophecy.
Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.
It’s crazy how Social Media banned and bans talk on the Coronavirus origin and now scientists are now saying it likely came from the Wuhan Lab.
It seems the truth is not the truth till the elites tell us it is.
Hi Proclaimer,
That is not correct gadam. It was specifically about the end of the age. Yes Jesus predicted the siege of Jerusalem and some events that would take place before the end, even in the first century. He even said, that it wouldn’t be the end yet, then tells of signs that would signify that.
I have shifted these arguments of yours on End of the age to “Question of Parousia of Jesus”
Please check for my reply to your post there.
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