California Researchers Discover America's First "Triple" Mutant COVID Strain
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Lately, public health 'experts' in the US, Australia and across the globe have been engaging in blatant fearmongering focused on mutant COVID strains including the Delta and Lamba variants (the latter of which was recently discovered in Peru, while Delta was first identified in India and has since spread across the globe).
And now, American authorities have yet another variant to pound the alarm about: researchers in California have discovered the epsilon variant, which features a "triple mutation" on the spike protein that the virus uses to infect humans, making it (in theory) more infectious, according to the Daily Mail.
This isn't the first time scientists have discovered a so-called "triple variant". Scientists in India have isolated variants with "double" and "triple" mutations.
Researchers from the University of Washington and Vir Biotechnology, based in San Francisco, found that the variant had three mutations on the spike protein, which the virus uses to enter and infect human cells.
The Epsilon variant was first identified in May 2020 and was virtually nonexistent until October.
It would later split into two separate versions, the B.1.427 and the more common B.1.429 mutation.
It has remained a relatively quiet variant of the virus outside of California, not causing an outbreak similar to the Indian 'Delta' variant.
Epsilon still managed to find its way into at least 44 countries, though 97 percent of the 49,221 cases worldwide have been recorded in the US
California is presently contributing roughly half of the new cases reported in the US over the past week. That state is home to roughly one-fifth of the US economy.
In addition to Cali, Hawaii and Nevada are also dealing with smaller outbreaks of the variant, which is also referred to as B.1.429 (the variants were given Greek letter names to help make them more memorable for the general public).
Researchers say both types of the variant have the ability to evade the neutralizing antibodies found in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are the most widely used jabs in the US.
The only question now is how much longer until scientists are using epsilon to justify making masks mandatory indoors again, or perhaps another lockdown?
Tyler Durden Thu, 07/08/2021 - 11:35