This new variant, B.1.1.529 seems to spread very quick! In less than 2 weeks now dominates all infections following a devastating Delta wave in South Africa (Blue new variant, now at 75% of last genomes and soon to reach 100%) pic.twitter.com/Z9mde45Qe0
— Tulio de Oliveira (@Tuliodna) November 25, 2021
That bottom graph is scary
A new variant of Covid-19 has been found in South Africa, B.1.1.529, aka Omicron, and its emergence in South Africa is nothing short of terrifying, with it reaching 75% of all cases there in only 2 weeks.
It's already been detected in Europe, and is almost certainly in already in the United States, and there is no reliable data as to how effective vaccines are against it, but it has many more mutations than the Delta variant:
The first inkling of a new, potentially fearsome threat arrived a few days ago. The latest variant of the coronavirus was on the move, the Biden administration was told. And, before long, evidence emerged that the variant — which would be dubbed omicron — carried worrisome mutations.
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On Saturday, covid-19 cases caused by the omicron variant were confirmed or suspected in a widening circle of nations, including Britain and Germany. The pharmaceutical companies whose vaccines had appeared to chart a path out of the pandemic expedited development of new formulations targeting the omicron variant.
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But early data from South Africa, where officials say omicron fueled a recent outbreak at breathtaking speed, suggests the new variant is already spreading more quickly than delta. In the populous Gauteng province around Johannesburg, the share of swabs that tested positive for the coronavirus spiked from 3.6 percent Wednesday to 9.1 percent Friday. The country is bracing for the possibility of its public health systems becoming overwhelmed.
Understand that South Africa is one of the few nations on the continent with sufficient clinical and lab infrastructure to reliably detect the variant, so it is very likely that it's already running rampant elsewhere.
It has been made worse by the insistence of western nations on the primacy of patents, largely developed through public money, over the public good.
We are in for an exceedingly bumpy ride.
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