If you thought the Delta Variant was bad… then you don’t even want to hear about the Delta Plus Variant.
This is the Delta Variant on steroids.
One of the latest coronavirus variants to raise concern is the Delta Plus. But what is it and why is it a potential problem in the fight to suppress the virus?
What is the Delta Plus variant?
Delta Plus is simply the Delta variant with an additional mutation called K417N. There are at least two separate groups of the variant and these are known as AY.1 and AY.2. The first of these, AY.1, appears to be the most globally widespread.
Now that sounds concerning.
Why is it causing concern?
Why is it causing concern?
The same K417N mutation is found in the Beta variant first detected in South Africa. The Beta variant is a concern because evidence suggests it is partially resistant to vaccines based on the original pandemic virus, and to immunity gained from previous Covid infection. The K417N mutation is believed to be part of the reason the Beta variant can evade vaccines to some degree, so when the highly transmissible Delta variant acquires the mutation, scientists are bound to pay attention.
At the moment, vaccines seem to perform well against the standard Delta variant, particularly after two jabs, but public health authorities are concerned that the K417N mutation could dent vaccine protection, or immunity gained from previous infection with an older form of the virus.
This is like deja vu all over again.
It’s time to shut everything down, big time.
We have to protect people in their 80s and 90s from getting infected with this by quarantining the entire world.
As we know: the only way to be sure is not only to quarantine the vulnerable, but quarantine the healthy with the vulnerable, while also allowing everyone to pack into the grocery store together.
We have to stay locked down until we can create a vaccine for this deadly virus.
It’s the only moral choice.