{"id":1057772,"date":"2021-11-26T16:29:29","date_gmt":"2021-11-26T21:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1057772"},"modified":"2021-11-26T16:29:33","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T21:29:33","slug":"who-meets-to-discuss-variant-of-covid-19-spreading-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/who-meets-to-discuss-variant-of-covid-19-spreading-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"WHO Meets To Discuss Variant Of COVID-19 Spreading In South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fwho-meets-to-discuss-variant-of-covid-19-spreading-in-south-africa%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1057772&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The World Health Organization (WHO) called a meeting on Friday to discuss a new mutant strain of COVID-19 that is spreading in South Africa.<\/p>\n<p>Joe Phaahla, South Africa\u2019s minister of health, identified the new variant as B.1.1.529, Fox News <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/health\/who-meets-to-discuss-new-heavily-mutated-covid-19-variant\">reported<\/a>. He said the strain appears to be highly contagious, especially among young people.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a BBC health reporter <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/health-59418127\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">wrote<\/a> that the new variant has a \u201clong list of mutations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis variant did surprise us,\u201d Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Center for South Africa\u2019s Epidemic Response and Innovation, told the BBC. \u201cIt has a big jump on evolution [and] many more mutations that we expected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nature magazine&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-021-03552-w\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">reported<\/a> that the strain was first detected in Botswana earlier this month. The report said scientists are working to find out if the variant can evade the immune response and vaccine protection. One researcher in Johannesburg said, \u201cWe\u2019re flying at warp speed,\u201d said the magazine.<\/p>\n<p>Epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said&nbsp;one detection of the virus occurred in Southern Africa, when one person quarantining in a hotel passed it on to another guest. \u201cIt\u2019s very airborne,\u201d Feigl-Ding told the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-10244455\/Scientists-alarmed-new-worst-COVID-variant-make-vaccines-40-effective.html\">Daily Mail<\/a>. \u201cThe hotel guests were in different room across the hallway from each other. Environmental samples found the virus in 25 of 87 swabs across both rooms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The New York Post published an <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/11\/26\/what-to-know-about-whos-meeting-on-new-b-1-1-529-covid-19-variant\/\">explainer<\/a> about the new variant, examining its potential to evade vaccines. \u201cB.1.1.529 has a spike protein that is drastically different to the one in the original bug that the vaccines are based on, according to the UK Health Security Agency, which is raising some concern about how current jabs will perform against it,\u201d the Post explained.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSouth Africa\u2019s Department of Health also said during a briefing Thursday that the variant contains several mutations associated with increased antibody resistance, which may reduce the effectiveness of current vaccines,\u201d the Post added.&nbsp;More from the outlet:<\/p>\n<p><em>Sharon Peacock, who has led genetic sequencing of COVID-19 in Britain at the University of Cambridge, told the Associated Press that the data so far suggests that the virus\u2019 mutations are \u201cconsistent with enhanced transmissibility,\u201d but said that \u201cthe significance of many of the mutations is still not known.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO\u2019s technical lead on COVID-19, told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2021\/11\/25\/who-calls-special-meeting-to-discuss-new-covid-variant-from-south-africa-with-large-number-of-mutations.html\">CNBC<\/a>, \u201cIt will take a few weeks for us to understand what impact this variant has on any potential vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRight now, researchers are getting together to understand where these mutations are in the spike protein and the furin cleavage site, and what that potentially may mean for our diagnostics or therapeutics and our vaccines,\u201d Van Kerkhove said, adding that the agency could label the strain the Greek name Nu.<\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\">member<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The World Health Organization (WHO) called a meeting on Friday to discuss a new mutant strain of COVID-19 that is spreading in South Africa.Joe Phaahla, South Africa\u2019s minister of health, identified the new variant as B.1.1.529, Fox News reported. He said the strain appears to be highly contagious, especially among young people.Meanwhile, a BBC health reporter wrote that the new variant has a \u201clong list of mutations.\u201d\u201cThis variant did surprise us,\u201d Tulio de Oliveira, the director of the Center for South Africa\u2019s Epidemic Response and Innovation, told the BBC. \u201cIt has a big jump on evolution [and] many more mutations that we expected.\u201dNature magazine\u00a0reported that the strain was first detected in Botswana earlier this month. The report said scientists are working to find out if the variant can evade the immune response and vaccine protection. One researcher in Johannesburg said, \u201cWe\u2019re flying at warp speed,\u201d said the magazine.Epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, a senior fellow at the Federation of American Scientists, said\u00a0one detection of the virus occurred in Southern Africa, when one person quarantining in a hotel passed it on to another guest. \u201cIt\u2019s very airborne,\u201d Feigl-Ding told the Daily Mail. \u201cThe hotel guests were in different room across the hallway from each other. Environmental samples found the virus in 25 of 87 swabs across both rooms.\u201dThe New York Post published an explainer about the new variant, examining its potential to evade vaccines. \u201cB.1.1.529 has a spike protein that is drastically different to the one in the original bug that the vaccines are based on, according to the UK Health Security Agency, which is raising some concern about how current jabs will perform against it,\u201d the Post explained.\u201cSouth Africa\u2019s Department of Health also said during a briefing Thursday that the variant contains several mutations associated with increased antibody resistance, which may reduce the effectiveness of current vaccines,\u201d the Post added.\u00a0More from the outlet:Sharon Peacock, who has led genetic sequencing of COVID-19 in Britain at the University of Cambridge, told the Associated Press that the data so far suggests that the virus\u2019 mutations are \u201cconsistent with enhanced transmissibility,\u201d but said that \u201cthe significance of many of the mutations is still not known.\u201dDr. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO\u2019s technical lead on COVID-19, told CNBC, \u201cIt will take a few weeks for us to understand what impact this variant has on any potential vaccines.\u201d\u201cRight now, researchers are getting together to understand where these mutations are in the spike protein and the furin cleavage site, and what that potentially may mean for our diagnostics or therapeutics and our vaccines,\u201d Van Kerkhove said, adding that the agency could label the strain the Greek name Nu.The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":159,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1057772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1057772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1057772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1057772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1057772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1057772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}