Covid19mathblog.com

Mutant strain resistant to Pfizer vaccine – https://sea.mashable.com/science/15262/scientists-say-this-mutant-covid-19-strain-is-resistant-to-pfizer-vaccine

“A new study conducted in Israel has shown that a variant of the coronavirus that was first identified in South Africa may have the capability to bypass the protection offered by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

The study – which is yet to be peer-reviewed – was conducted by scientists at the Tel Aviv University and Clalit, Israel’s largest healthcare organization.”

“The findings ended up showing that the strain found in South Africa – known as B.1.135 – was eight times more rampant in individuals that had already taken both doses of the vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech.”

“Thailand has recently discovered locally-transmitted cases of the B.1.1.7 strain in at least 24 individuals, which translates into a problem, considering that the nation was only recently looking to loosen protocols for inbound travel in a bid to boost its beleaguered tourism sector.”

“In February, Pfizer and BioNTech reported that they were experimenting with a possible third dose of their vaccine in an effort to better understand how the human immune system responds to new variants of the coronavirus.”

“"The rate of mutations in the current virus is higher than expected," said Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s Chief Scientific Officer. "It’s a reasonable probability that we would end up with regular boosts."

"And for potent vaccines, it may be that you need to do a strain change every few years."”

Sounds like perpetual $$$$

Yikes the truth? Also note their thoughts on when second dose should be taken!- https://time.com/5954051/chinese-covid19-vaccines-effectiveness/

“In a rare admission of the weakness of Chinese coronavirus vaccines, the country’s top disease control official says their effectiveness is low and the government is considering mixing them to get a boost.

Chinese vaccines “don’t have very high protection rates,” said the director of the China Centers for Disease Control, Gao Fu, at a conference Saturday in the southwestern city of Chengdu.”
“Experts say mixing vaccines, or sequential immunization, might boost effectiveness. Researchers in Britain are studying a possible combination of Pfizer-BioNTech and the traditional AstraZeneca vaccine.”

“The effectiveness of a Sinovac vaccine at preventing symptomatic infections was found to be as low as 50.4% by researchers in Brazil, near the 50% threshold at which health experts say a vaccine is useful. By comparison, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been found to be 97% effective.”

“Chinese state media and popular health and science blogs also have questioned the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

As of April 2, some 34 million people in China have received both of the two doses required for Chinese vaccines and about 65 million received one, according to Gao.

The Sinovac spokesman, Liu, said studies find protection “may be better” if time between vaccinations is longer than the current 14 days but gave no indication that might be made standard practice.”

Hmmm what is this a vaccine hybrid? https://www.statnews.com/2021/04/12/regeneron-antibody-cocktail-covid-simple-injection/

“Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said Monday that a single administration of its monoclonal antibody cocktail reduced the risk that volunteers exposed to Covid-19 would develop the disease by 81%.”

“Those results mirror similar results seen in a study conducted by Eli Lilly of its monoclonal antibody in nursing homes. One key difference: While in previous studies by both Lilly and Regeneron, antibodies had to be given intravenously, in this one Regeneron used a formulation that could be given with an under-the-skin injection. Lilly is also exploring a subcutaneous injection of its antibodies.”

““As of now, there are still substantial numbers of people who are not fully vaccinated,” Barouch said. What’s more, some people, including those with compromised immune systems, might not generate enough antibodies one their own —– and could benefit from antibodies that are injected into their bodies.

In some circumstances, say, an outbreak at a nursing home, the monoclonal antibodies, which start working immediately, could be the better approach.”

Can we get a mutation that makes you have super powers? Why all the bad news all the time? https://www.cityam.com/new-super-covid-variant-combines-18-mutations/

“A new super variant of the Covid-19 virus in Brazil is a combination of 18 different mutations, including the so-called Brazil, British and South African strains.

According to local media reports, scientist in the South American country confirmed that the new strain, which was first discovered in the city of Belo Horizonte, contains multiple mutations that were already known.”

“While he stressed it is too early to say the new strain is more infectious or deadly, Santana did say the new strain has the characterises of those variants that are already associated with a higher risk of death.”

Brazil really needs to be in lockdown from the rest of the world – potentially India. Exports will be impacted.

Brazil deaths are up there. India confirmation going to the moon.

NY leads both confirmation and deaths

Still the same counties lead. Positive news will be lowering threshold to reporting.