Current Events > Vietnam IDs new hybrid of Indian and UK COVID variants

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://news.yahoo.com/vietnam-detects-hybrid-indian-uk-050053810.html

HANOI (Reuters) -Authorities in Vietnam have detected a new coronavirus variant that is a combination of the Indian and UK COVID-19 variants and spreads quickly by air, the health minister said on Saturday.

After successfully containing the virus for most of last year, Vietnam is grappling with a spike in infections since late April that accounts for more than half of the total 6,713 registered cases. So far, there have been 47 deaths.

"Vietnam has uncovered a new COVID-19 variant combining characteristics of the two existing variants first found in India and the UK," Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long said in a statement.

"The new variant is very dangerous," he added.

The Southeast Asian country had previously detected seven virus variants: B.1.222, B.1.619, D614G, B.1.1.7 - known as the UK variant, B.1.351, A.23.1 and B.1.617.2 - the "Indian variant".

Online newspaper VnExpress said Long had described the new variant as a hybrid of the Indian and UK variants.

"The new one is an Indian variant with mutations that originally belong to the UK variant," Long was quoted as saying, adding that authorities would soon announce the name and detailed characteristics of the newly discovered variant.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified four variants of SARS-CoV-2 of global concern. These include variants that emerged first in India, in Britain, in South Africa and in Brazil.

Officials at the WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the new variant identified in Vietnam.

Laboratory cultures of the new variant, which is much more transmissible than the previously known types, revealed that the virus replicated itself very quickly, Long was quoted as saying.

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We're never going to get over this.

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Southernfatman posted...

We're never going to get over this.

yes it's cringe, but it will probably happen again

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So why are we opening up again? Both the UK and Indian variants are in the U.S.

uwa ej posted...

So why are we opening up again? Both the UK and Indian variants are in the U.S.

I agree with moving forward cautiously in the US, but Vietnam has like a 1% vax rate. So there's a huge difference between the two countries.

We'll see how opening up goes.

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i wonder if covid influenced my mental health at all

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Don't viruses reproduce asexually (whatever you call entering a cell and rewriting instructions)?
How does hybridisation work?
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awesome999 posted...

Don't viruses reproduce asexually (whatever you call entering a cell and rewriting instructions)?
How does hybridisation work?

Viruses do not "reproduce" they lack the cell organs needed to do such things. They penetrate cell membranes and the cell copies them over and over again until they burst and die.

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uwa ej posted...

So why are we opening up again? Both the UK and Indian variants are in the U.S.

Because it's mostly poor and old people that die.

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uwa ej posted...

So why are we opening up again? Both the UK and Indian variants are in the U.S.

If virus variants were consistently as dangerous as most people seem to believe we'd be extinct a dozen times over by now.

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Prismsblade posted...

If virus variants were consistently as dangerous as most people seem to believe we'd be extinct a dozen times over by now.

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Prismsblade posted...

If virus variants were consistently as dangerous as most people seem to believe we'd be extinct a dozen times over by now.

A staph infection is a minor annoyance until it suddenly becomes septic and you fucking die.

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Tyranthraxus posted...

Viruses do not "reproduce" they lack the cell organs needed to do such things. They penetrate cell membranes and the cell copies them over and over again until they burst and die.

Yeah but how do they hybridize?
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@awesome999 posted...

Don't viruses reproduce asexually (whatever you call entering a cell and rewriting instructions)?
How does hybridisation work?

When a mommy virus and a daddy virus love each other very much...

... they go to the Wuhan virology center and...

... No no. What actually happens is 2 virus strains can invade a cell at the same time, and can on occasion produce a hybrid.
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The other way is that errors in viral genome replication result in altered protein.


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Notti posted...

No no. What actually happens is 2 virus strains can invade a cell at the same time, and can on occasion produce a hybrid.

From what I understand of viruses (which admittedly is not a lot), such things are impossible
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awesome999 posted...

From what I understand of viruses (which admittedly is not a lot), such things are impossible

It's a thing

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awesome999 posted...

From what I understand of viruses (which admittedly is not a lot), such things are impossible

https://splinternews.com/cubas-vicious-new-strain-of-hiv-5-things-to-know-1793845410

A new and very aggressive form of HIV has been discovered in Cuba by researchers from the University of Leuven in Belgium. The hybrid strain is whats known as a circulating recombinant form (CRF), the result of multiple strains of HIV combining within a white blood cell and basically forming an evil Voltron strainthe strain has been dubbed CRF19. Left untreated, it can progress to full-blown AIDS within three years. Normally, untreated HIV progresses to AIDS in six to 10 years.
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awesome999 posted...

From what I understand of viruses (which admittedly is not a lot), such things are impossible

It is possible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_recombination#RNA_virus_recombination

In fact it happened a few months back too:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/two-variants-have-merged-into-a-heavily-mutated-hybrid-version-of-the-coronavirus-report-says/ar-BB1dLVXF

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We're fucked.

Kingbuffet posted...

We're fucked.

http://i.imgur.com/nOfw8sb.gif
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Update on the matter:

New, Highly Contagious Covid-19 Variant Discovered In Vietnam


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