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Coronavirus: Scientists hail 'groundbreaking' discovery of antibody which prevents infection

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Alexander J Martin, technology reporter
Sky News4 May 2020
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-scientists-hail-groundbreaking-discovery-antibody-prevents-infection-094100793.html
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On 5/4/2020 at 5:10 PM, johng said:

Inaccurate statement. First, flu deaths relate to a year, and are based on a disease which is widespread and infects one billion people a year. Covid-19 has only been around for 4 months, and has only been widespread for less than 2 months. I very much doubt anyone would claim a billion people have had it yet. In the USA, Covid-19 has already killed between one and 3 times as many as flu did, and by the end of the year, how many? By the end of this year, Covid-19 WILL have killed more than Flu did. We just do not know how many more yet. Until annual death rates are analysed, and excess mortality for this year calculated, we will not know how many it (probably) killed.

 

One issue is many people die of it but are not diagnosed. In the Brazilian city of Manaus, deaths from respiratory diseases rose over 500% last month - but without tests, they are not reported as Covid-19 ........

 

Two months ago, total (known) world deaths from Covid-19 was just 3,000. Now 250,000. And that is with all the lockdowns, social distancing and other control measures thrown at it. Two months. How many by the end of the year? 

 

I

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On 5/4/2020 at 5:06 PM, johng said:

While I fully agree that there are too many humans breeding,   do not at all I agree with your

"breeding criteria"   ..genome testing  "the perfect race"  that's stuff of WWII !!

Well, we have scientists in charge at the moment so it may happen faster than we think.

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6 minutes ago, Phil McCaverty said:

If the Oxford University lab wins the race, that will be no one. Just pray that a US lab doesn't win the race.

 

I wouldn't be so sure... Someone will be making money from it in the future, maybe just not the initial offering.

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1 hour ago, cornishcarlos said:

 

Hahahahaha. My eyes must be going dodgy !! Thanks for pointing that out ????

No worries. My spelling is atrocious, so it made me check several times. 

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Scientists say they have identified a mutation in coronavirus which they believe means a more contagious strain has been sweeping Europe and the US - and could even reinfect those who already have antibodies.

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the US detected 14 mutations in the COVID-19 virus spike proteins, one of which - known as Spike D614G - they said was of "urgent concern".

Their research paper suggests the mutated strain of coronavirus that has become dominant across the world was first indentified in Europe and is different to those which spread early on in the pandemic.

So urgent is the issue that the research paper describing their findings has been made available before being peer-reviewed, although this has caused concern among some observers.

By analysing more than 6,000 genetic sequences of coronavirus samples taken from patients globally, the researchers found the mutated strain was persistently becoming the most dominant version of the virus in every region it was detected in.

While first discovered in Europe in early February, the researchers believe the coronavirus mutation has now become the most prevalent strain across the whole of the world.

The study indicates it has been consistently out-competing the original strain detected in Wuhan, which spread through that region of China and some other Asian countries before March.

Dr Bette Korber, the study's lead author, said: "The story is worrying, as we see a mutated form of the virus very rapidly emerging, and over the month of March becoming the dominant pandemic form.

"When viruses with this mutation enter a population, they rapidly begin to take over the local epidemic, thus they are more transmissible."

The mutation to the spike protein has caused concern because this is one of the most effective parts of the virus, and the aspect which most treatments and vaccines are targeting.

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