COVID-19 mutation may be evolving to bypass mask-wearing, hand-washing

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Hat tip to @RidgeRunner who brought this up earlier on another thread.

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COVID-19 mutation may be evolving to bypass mask-wearing, hand-washing​

By Jackie Salo

September 24, 2020

A new COVID-19 mutation appears to be even more contagious, according to a study — and experts say it could be a response by the virus to defeat masks and other social-distancing efforts.

Scientists in a paper published Wednesday identified a new strain of the virus, which accounted for 99.9 percent of cases during the second wave in the Houston, Texas, area, the Washington Post reported.

The paper, which has not been peer-reviewed, said people with the strain, known as the D614G mutation, had higher loads of virus — suggesting it is more contagious.

Though the strain isn’t more deadly, researchers said it appeared to have adapted better to spread among humans. . .

. . . “Wearing masks, washing our hands, all those things are barriers to transmissibility, or contagion, but as the virus becomes more contagious, it statistically is better at getting around those barriers,” Morens told the newspaper. . . .
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D614G mutation now the dominant variant in the global COVID-19 pandemic​

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)By Dr. Liji Thomas, MD Sep 25 2020

Multiple studies show the occurrence of various mutations defining different clades of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is essential to keep watch over the newly emerging mutations and the fitness of the new strains to maintain an effective response to the pandemic. Now, a new study by researchers at the University of Hong Kong and published on the preprint server medRxiv* in September 2020 shows that a significant variant characterized by the D614G mutation has higher infectivity, which may account for its rapid rise to the dominant position in all regions where it has emerged. . . .

. . . In short, the increased infectivity of the G614 strain is solely responsible for its higher transmission rate.

Earlier studies show that the G614 strain entered European countries earlier relative to Australia or the US, and made up from ~20% to 75% of all infections by early March. . . .

*Important Notice

medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, . . .
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The conclusion I would therefore draw from this excerpt is that we must be even more scrupulous in wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing, and certainly not that we should be less scrupulous or abandon this protocol.
 
This virus has been mutating for quite some time. If it does evolve to totally negate our best efforts , it will turn into one of those superbugs that leave spaces unoccupiable. We already have one of those on the run.
 
How about people that get it, just get over it
over 99% of the time, now form immunity, and go on with life?
 
Cathoholic said:
How about people that get it, just get over it
over 99% of the time, now form immunity, and go on with life?
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My bro in law is in hospital tonight in the cardiac ward. If He gets it, odds are he wont survive, he will have some sort of medical procedure as required next week. He has a young family. He is in a hospital that has had a problem with Covid and closed wards, staff off in isolation. Mutation means there are strains more virulent floating around. There are also long term health effects becoming prevalent in younger people.

The Spanish flu deaths breakdown here were 30% of the deaths were pregnant women. Time will tell what this virus is like.

If the policy is to go herd inmunity, be prepared for a high death toll, and give out free funerals.
 
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Yes, so that the virus is NOT “statistically better at getting around those barriers.” Remember that the virus is evolving. Evolution of the virus is a process, but it is not necessarily an inexorable process which cannot be stopped or minimized by superior attention to the protocol we now have, such as 10 feet of social distancing instead of 6 feet (as some experts recommended from the beginning), more thorough hand washing, and better masks which are worn more conscientiously.
 
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It’s not that simple. By the time we achieve herd immunity, especially without an effective vaccine, millions will die according to Anthony Fauci. Is it worth the cost? I don’t believe so but some may differ.

Apart from this, too many do not fully recover. There are lingering symptoms, some of which are debilitating, and particularly among younger people, including those who are so-called asymptomatic. I use the term “so-called” because asymptomatic means they likely do not transmit the virus (although this too is contested) but they still have internal symptoms such as lung scarring, reduced capacity, and the like.
 
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"I don’t go anywhere. If the president says something, I do the opposite. ’Cause he changes his mind every hour. I mean, literally. I’m going, ‘What?’”
Ozzy Osbourne
 
umamibella . . .
My bro in law is in hospital tonight in the cardiac ward.
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I am not suggesting people as a whole just ignore this.

The people at the most risk can CHOOSE THEMSELVES what they deem acceptable risk.

So sicker people can decide if they want to live life normally, semi-normally, or hole-up.
Mutation means there are strains more virulent floating around.
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More contagious (what this thread concerns) does not mean more virulence (although there are some more virulent and less virulent strains out there too).
There are also long term health effects becoming prevalent in younger people.
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Yes. That has been true with RSV and influenza too.

Another good reason to treat EARLY (hydroxychloroquine has not been studied adequately on these cohorts. They always show a bunch of late infected patients which mean the virus is ALREADY in the cell in a widespread manner.
(We are past the point of diminishing returns on those poorly-designed studies.)
Then they sit around wondering WHY the HCQ didn’t help, while putting out more studies on this bad-cohort phenomenon (that we could have figured out without so many of those studies when you just think through the mechanism of pathogenicity).

Other early interventions being looked at (but not looked at enough) are inhaled nebulized corticosteroids such as budesonide, and oral ivermectin.

This may be a better approach than worthless masking up of society (too many variables and can even CAUSE problems) and quarantining HEALTHY people.
The Spanish flu deaths breakdown here were 30% of the deaths were pregnant women. Time will tell what this virus is like.
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The average age of death with the Spanish Flu was 25 years old if I recall correctly.

The average age of death with corona virus is age 81.

Time is telling and corona virus, when the world has antibody, coronavirus will be much less dangerous than the flu.

The flu right now is much more of a danger to young people.
 
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Thbolt said:
Nah, totally backwards. The virus will outthink you. Just give into it. Like Sweden did.
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Sweden didn’t just give into it, they are protecting their most vulnerable while they march towards herd immunity.
 
I believe here in Florida the wearing a mask mandate has been dropped as of Friday. I didn’t read the details so there might be more to it. Got a kick this morning going to the store. An elderly lady in front of me entering the store, who was likely in her later 80s an age group most vulnerable to the virus, was adamant she was not going to wear a face covering while in the store. They let her in to do her grocery shopping.

In hopes of keeping me flu and cold free I’ll continue to sunbathe for a few minutes in the afternoon, and drink a glass or two of wine a day. I’ve read both can be helpful with preventing virus infections. So for it’s worked for me.
 
Also sounds like a weird game of chess between the humans and the virus.
 
I’m skeptical that taking vitamin D will be all that helpful at preventing cold and flu bugs. It likely would not hurt though and might provide some benefit from what I’ve read.

From what I’ve read I’ve come to believe that it is other substances created in the body when sunlight shines on the skin that provides benefits at helping to prevent virus infections. Vitamin D testing is a good way to determine how much time has been spent outdoors.

It is a contentious debate about sunlight and cancer. On the positive side, sunlight has been found in studies to be beneficial at preventing several internal cancers such as prostate, colon, breast cancer. It can be beneficial at preventing heart disease too. With that, as expected some sun exposure has been found to increase ones life span. As an example on that ~

Sun Exposure Lengthens Your Life Expectancy? Women Who Sunbathe Live Longer, But We Aren’t Sure Why​

https://www.medicaldaily.com/life-expectancy-sun-exposure-sunbathe
 
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Cathoholic said:
The people at the most risk can CHOOSE THEMSELVES what they deem accaptable risk.
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No they can’t. The risk to the elderly is to a large extent forced on them by the actions of the young people around them. If they blow off the virus and don’t take proper precautions, those younger people (anyone less than 50) will spread to the more vulnerable. This is a whole society problem - not just an individual problem. This is where extreme libertarians just don’t get it.
Cathoholic said:
Another good reason to treat EARLY (hydroxychloroquine has not been studied adequately on these cohorts. They always show a bunch of late infected patients which mean the virus is ALREADY in the cell in a widespread manner.
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If you want HCQ studied as an early treatment for covid-19, go ahead and advocate for such studies. But until then it is wrong to attribute any effectiveness at all to HCQ. Just because some study that said HCQ was ineffective was flawed that does not mean HCQ is effective. It just means we don’t know. So don’t pretend HCQ is “almost proven effective” or anything like that.
Cathoholic said:
The average age of death with corona virus is age 81.
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This stat is often thrown out without comment, as it is here, leaving open the question of what it implies about policy. If the implication is that this means the young have no moral reason to take responsibility, that would be wrong.
Cathoholic said:
coronavirus will be much less dangerous than the flu.
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Projection not made by any authoritative source, and should be treated accordingly.
 
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LeafByNiggle . . .
No they can’t.
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Yes they can. They can hole-up if they want to. There are no “young people around them” if they choose this path.

To the readers here.

LeafByNiggle (yet again fallaciously changing my premise to make arguing against a point easier for him) . . . .
If they blow off the virus and don’t take proper precautions . . .
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Here is what Cathoholic REALLY said (right here) . . .
So sicker people can decide if they want to live life normally, semi-normally, or hole-up.
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NOT Cathoholic . . . .
So sicker people can blow off the virus and don’t take proper precautions
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Cathoholic said:
LeafByNiggle . . .
No they can’t.
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No they can’t. They are part of the society. They cannot isolate themselves from everyone. How do they get groceries? How do they get the toilet fixed?
To the readers here.

LeafByNiggle (yet again fallaciously changing my premise to make arguing against a point easier for him) . . . .
If they blow off the virus and don’t take proper precautions . . .
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But that is exactly what Cathoholic has been supporting - the right of young people to stop wearing masks, stop observing social distancing, etc. That is “blowing off the virus” since that is all the public health officials have been asking of them.
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