Current Events > New variant in Tokyo 'EEK'

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CobraGT
04/04/21 5:45:38 PM
#1:


maybe breaking news https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-japan/troubling-eek-variant-found-in-most-tokyo-hospital-covid-cases-nhk-idUSKBN2BR03W

Tokyo hospitals see new variant called eek.

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The E484K mutation, nicknamed Eek by some scientists, was found in 10 of 14 people who tested positive for the virus at Tokyo Medical and Dental University Medical Hospital in March, the report said.
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Irony
04/04/21 5:46:06 PM
#2:


Seriously?

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CobraGT
04/04/21 5:48:11 PM
#3:


Says REUTERS.

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Trumble
04/04/21 5:51:43 PM
#4:


It's unclear if this is actually a new variant, or just an existing one flaring up in a new location. The E484K mutation itself has been around for a while now, and is present in several notable variants (including B.1.351 (SA) and P.1 (Brazil), but not most samples of B.1.1.7 (UK)).

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#5
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CobraGT
04/04/21 5:52:48 PM
#6:


https://www.abc15.com/news/coronavirus/study-arizona-state-university-researchers-find-new-covid-19-variant-of-interest

https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n359 "The E484K mutation is not a new variant in itself, its a mutation which occurs in different variants and has already been found in the South African (B.1.351) and Brazilian (B.1.1.28) variants. The mutation is in the spike protein and appears to have an impact on the bodys immune response and, possibly, vaccine efficacy. On 1 February, Public Health England (PHE) announced that the Covid-19 Genomics (COG-UK) consortium had identified this same E484K mutation in 11 samples carrying the UK variant B.1.1.7 (sometimes called the Kent variant), after analysing 214 159 sequences.1"

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/coronavirus/article250338246.html

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Dakimakura
04/04/21 5:52:55 PM
#7:


lock it down again

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Trumble
04/04/21 5:53:03 PM
#8:


Future_Trunks posted...
are vaccines effective?
The E484K mutation is known to reduce the effectiveness of (but not, in and of itself, outright evade) vaccines.

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ArkThompson
04/04/21 5:56:10 PM
#9:


Dakimakura posted...
lock it down again
The issue is that Japan never locked down to begin with.

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CobraGT
04/04/21 6:03:19 PM
#10:


Notice that USA sequences less than 1% from British Medical Journal

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Is monitoring good enough?
The UK has carried out nearly half of all SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences deposited to the global database, GISAID. A spokesperson for the COG-UK consortium said that since the beginning of the pandemic they had conducted genome sequencing on about 7% of positive test samples and this is increasing now as case numbers fall and capacity is increasing. This is the highest in Europe, apart from Denmark which announced they will soon test all positive covid-19 test swabs for the presence of variants. Globally, however, genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 remains patchy. For example, the US sequences less than 1% of new samples and many countries, especially in Africa, have no sequencing data at all.
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CobraGT
04/04/21 6:14:03 PM
#11:


from Miami Herald article

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Dr. David Andrews, a UM pathologist who is leading the universitys study on COVID virus mutations, said his team has noticed a significant increase in lineages carrying the E484K mutation as it examines more versions of the variants.
Rather than focusing their concern on a particular lineage, such as the P1 Brazilian variant, Andrews says his team is now keeping their eyes on the Eek mutation and how it crops up in various places. He noted that the mutation has been tagging along with the U.K. variant, first observed in the United Kingdom, and, more recently, in Oregon.
I think that is something that is going to be concerning in terms of public health, and is going to change the conversation a little bit away from a particular lineage, Andrews said.

Andrew Pekosz, professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins Universitys Bloomberg School of Public Health, said he agreed that the E484K mutation was beginning to pop up in viruses of very different backgrounds, as if all the viruses in the world have figured out that this is going to help them.
Now, we have to figure out why its going to help them, Pekosz said. ... Its no longer a variant that were worrying about. Its any virus out there that is picking up the E484K mutation.
Bill Hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard Universitys T.H. Chan School of Public Health, noted that its not just how often researchers are finding the Eek mutation, but where they are finding it.

It has been popping up all over the place in locations where there has been substantial transmission recently, together with a history of many previous infections, Hanage said, a phenomenon he attributed to some degree of immune evasion.

It is turning up everywhere, and getting more common through the ability to reinfect people who have recovered from their first bout with the virus. While the characteristics of such reinfections in comparison with the first round are not clear, they are obviously worth taking seriously.

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