Category: Variants
Iceland: no herd immunity from vaccines with 50% vaccine breakthrough for hospitalizations
Iceland’s Chief Epidemiologist Þórólfur Guðnason says vaccination has not led to the herd immunity that experts hoped for. More...
USA: B.1.621 now at 10% of Covid-19 sequences in South Florida
Carlos Migoya, CEO of Jackson Health, revealed that now 10% of COVID-positive patients whose results are being sequenced at the University of Miami’s pathology lab have a strain [B.1.621] that originated out of Colombia. More...
Preprint: Characterization of the emerging B.1.621 variant of interest of SARS-CoV-2
In this study, we reported the emergence and spread of the novel B.1.621 lineage of SARS-CoV-2, a new VOI with the insertion 146N and several amino acid substitutions in the Spike protein (T95I,Y144T, Y145S, R346K, E484K, N501Y and P681H). More...
Belgium: 7 fully vaccinated care home residents die after contracting B.1.621 Mu variant first found in Colombia
During the past two weeks, 7 residents of a care home near Zaventem in Belgium have died after having contracted the B.1.621 variant of coronavirus first identified in Colombia, South America. More...
Israel: “85-90% of the hospitalizations are in fully vaccinated people”
Dr Kobi Haviv, Herzog Hospital, Jerusalem: “95% of the severe patients are vaccinated”. More...
Iceland: 70% vaccine breakthrough – 1,565 infections of which 1,091 are fully vaccinated
Iceland’s Covid dashboard confirms the vaccine breakthrough rate in that country is about 70% for infections, as per the information given below. More...
Israel: National lockdown if booster jabs don’t work
An official in the high-level coronavirus cabinet, speaking on the condition of anonymity, tells the Kan public broadcaster that the government will wait and see what the effects of the third vaccine booster shot are before declaring a nationwide lockdown. More...
USA, Maryland: “I went to a party with 14 other vaccinated people; 11 of us got COVID”
I’m an epidemiologist at a major medical research university.
Shi Zhengli: We need to learn to live with the virus
Shi Zhengli, China’s ‘Bat Woman’, has said that new variants of Sars-Cov-2 will continue to emerge, but that vaccines are ‘effective’. More...
USA: Washington State Vaccine Breakthroughs by Variant up to 4th August 2021
This week’s update from Washington State showing vaccine breakthrough cases and which Sars-CoV-2 variant is causing them up to 4th August 2021. More...