UK’s Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock

This afternoon.

The House of Commons, London, UK.

Britain’s Health minister Matt Hancock confirmed that the UK is experiencing a “new variant” of the coronavirus .

He said:

“Over the last few days, thanks to our world-class genomic capability in the UK, we have identified a new variant of coronavirus which may be associated with the faster spread in the South of England.

“Initial analysis suggests that this variant is growing faster than the existing variants.

“We’ve currently identified over 1,000 cases with this variant predominantly in the South of England although cases have been identified in nearly 60 different local authority areas.”

UK detects new virus strain as London to move to Tier 3 (RTÉ)

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40 thoughts on “New Strain”

    2. SOQ

      What exactly does “a “new variant” of the coronavirus ” actually mean?

      A new variant of a cold like coronavirus or a new variant of SARS-CoV-2?

      3. Just Sayin

        And if it a new variant do they now need a new vaccine?

        But didn’t the say it wouldn’t mutate like the flu does, hence it was feasable to create a vaccine for this but not for the flu.

        Or is he just talking buIIshlt?

      4. Bitnboxy

        @SOQ – you should try your luck with the UK genome boffins. They’ll appreciate your, cough, expertise…

  4. Junkface

    I thought that RNA or mRNA vaccines were adjustable tech for new strains of covid 19? Let’s hope so.

    1. Just Sayin

      If the spike protein which is delivered via the vaccine has changed then they need a new vaccine.

      It’s a moot point anyway, we don’t need the vaccine as we’re well on the way to herd immunity without it.

      (but the vaccine will get the credit)

        1. Just Sayin

          Those curves are pretty much on the way down (tail end of the original pandemic interrupted by seasonality + regular winter flu season) , and would look even better if they stopped mislabeling non-covid deaths as covid.

          2. Just Sayin

            “downturns all happen after massive lockdowns”

            Nope, if you looked closely enough you would see the downturns start to occur before the lockdowns.

            The downturns are caused by seasonality / immunity factors, just like every other virus every other year when we didn’t lockdown.

          3. Haroo

            That is amazing. Apply that to the Belgian situation. Show me how new cases were falling prior to De Croo bringing in measures in Oct and then a full lockdown at the end of Oct.

            Virologists and epidemiologists from the Flemish region, Wallonia and Brussels all screaming for additional measures becuase of the unsustainable growth in new cases and the health system’s capacity becoming strained.

            But magically, pure coincidence, that measures like mandatory working from home, closing non-essential retail, arts/entertainment, bars, restos, cafes etc. all these measures designed to limit contact and impair the spread had nothing to do with it. It was just petering out and pure coincidence that it happened after these measures were brought in.

            That is amazing. Sure tell us all next Mystic Meg or Captain Hindsight what will happen next?

          4. Cian

            right… tell me more about these other “seasonal viruses” that peak twice in one year – in say April and November??

            Wil Covid disappear again until April? or do we have herd immunity and is it gone for good?

          5. Just Sayin

            An established (endemic) seasonal virus peaks once a year.

            A new virus (epidemic) tends to trigger and peak at the end of the traditional season, in future years it falls into the regular seasonal pattern.

            Sometimes because the new virus has triggered so late in the season it gets interrupted (Hence the April and November peaks) and waits till next season to resume.

            Generally a coronavirus would peak late in the season (probably Feb/March) so we might see a blip then.

            In future years there will only be the seasonal blip (Feb/Mar) and due to herd immunity it won’t be distinguishable from any other component of the winter flu mix.

            All this was figured out nearly 100 years ago by Hope Simpson.

            Why are people pretending to not know this stuff now?

          6. Cian

            What are *you* saying?

            You seem to suggest that
            1. this will have an annual peak in February/March. okay, so the next peak is due February 2021;
            2. That as a new virus we got a late peak in the 2019/20 season. Effectively the April peak was the tail-end of 2019/20

            Okay….
            How do you explain the tens of thousands of Covid deaths in October/November/December?
            Is this not a 3rd peak within 12 months (April 2020, Nov 2020 and Feb 2021) ?
            That doesn’t fit into your Simpson model.

          7. Just Sayin

            Cian,
            I’m sorry if this is too complicated for you to understand.

            “How do you explain the tens of thousands of Covid deaths in October/November/December?”

            These are the tail end of the initial April peak, plus the regular winter flu rebadged as covid.

            The overall mortality for this year is in line with previous years. The only surprise is the peak in April rather than in January. and by the way the peaks in Jan 1017 and 2018 were both bigger than the ‘exceptional’ April 2020 peak.

          10. Micko

            Not to be repeating myself, but stop comparing countries.

            There’s too many variables and it’s too nuanced.

            There’s also too many outliers in both good and bad ways. For example, Singapore has f all deaths, but Belgium has loads. No one can say why?

            Focus at home and stop looking for patterns abroad – it’s too complex.

          11. Cian

            “These are the tail end of the initial April peak, plus the regular winter flu rebadged as covid.”

            But we have never see this before with other viruses. The flu has an eight-week season – with a small 4 week buildup/drop down. Outside this there is very little happening.

            By this week last year the HPSC said:
            “Twenty-two influenza-associated deaths were reported to HPSC to date this season. ”

            The flu Season starts 1 October. There have been 322 Covid Deaths since 1 October.

            And a total of 45 ICU admissions for the season.
            There are currently 34 people in ICU with Covid.

            And Ireland hasn’t been hit with a second wave like Belgium, UK, Italy, Spain and France.

        2. Just Sayin

          Cian, if you believe those numbers than I’m sorry I can’t help you.

          Comparing supposed covid deaths to actual excess mortality figures shows them to be an impossibility. (they are other causes rebadged with the help of the dodgy PCR test)

          Perhaps one day there will be a vaccine for stupidity.

          In other news Doctors have discovered Red Hair is killing people, tests on dead Irish people have revealed that 10% of them have red hair.

  5. ce

    Charger will be on talking about how it’s a vastly superior British Brexit Strain of Covid – Express headline tomorrow will be something a long the lines of “Blightly Super Strain Tells EU – you won’t infect us with non-British Covid”

  6. E'Matty

    Does anyone have a graph for the deaths being attributed to Covid in Ireland for the whole year (or March to date anyway)? Most seem to only cover the March to May period. Can’t see any that provide an overview across the whole period.

    1. GiggidyGoo

      Don’t hold your breath. The last minutes of NPHET meetings was Thursday 12th November 2020, More than a month ago. They have meetings without having the minutes of the previous meeting available. Totally unprofessional.

      1. E'Matty

        Thank you for that Cian. Two quite interesting graphs. Ignoring the blobby nature of the graph data points, hard to see what all the fuss has been about. They almost had difficulty creating graphs with such trivial numbers. A long blobby flat line barely rising at all outside of March/April. Reminds me of “just two weeks to flatten the curve…” and here we are. Oh well…

  9. SOQ

    Matt Hancock today plunged around 10million people in the South East into a Tier 3 shutdown with just 30 hours’ notice – as he warned a new strain of coronavirus could be driving a surge in cases.

    He said initial evidence was that it is growing much faster than the previous strains, although he tried to cool fears by stressing that it did not seem to be more deadly, and there was low risk that it will not respond to vaccines.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9051155/MPs-warned-coronavirus-cases-London-chart-ahead-Tier-3-decision.html

    And that folks is a master class in word play and fear mongering.

    Unless they are testing each positive for the exact strain- no one knows. But it will respond to a vaccine- FOR THE EXISTING- so basically it is no different to the others.

    Disingenuous doesn’t even begin to describe this sort of propaganda.

    1. Andrew Caffrey

      What a load of fluff. The initial strain was a D strain of the virus. The vaccines are all based on the D strain despite the fact that the G strain is now accountable for 85% of all cases. It’s not a completely new virus, it’s a new variant which is vastly identical to the other strains. They don’t need to keep creating new vaccines.

      You’re the only person fear mongering. I’m genuinely scared reading the absolute pony you spout repeatedly.

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