{"id":1193498,"date":"2022-01-06T10:04:21","date_gmt":"2022-01-06T15:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1193498"},"modified":"2022-01-06T10:04:25","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T15:04:25","slug":"french-scientists-blame-cameroon-for-latest-coronavirus-variant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/french-scientists-blame-cameroon-for-latest-coronavirus-variant\/","title":{"rendered":"French Scientists Blame Cameroon for Latest Coronavirus Variant"},"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\">16<\/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%2Ffrench-scientists-blame-cameroon-for-latest-coronavirus-variant%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=1193498&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 class=\"subheading\"><span>Scientists from IHU Mediterranee Infection, a leading French institute of infectious disease microbiology, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/africatimes.com\/2022\/01\/03\/french-scientists-report-new-covid-variant-traced-to-cameroon\/\"><span>published<\/span><\/a><span> a research paper this week describing another new variant of the Wuhan coronavirus.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>he paper suggested the variant originated in the African nation of Cameroon \u2013 an implication Cameroon\u2019s health minister rejected on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>Dr. Manaouda Malachie, the Cameroonian health minister, released a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cameroon-tribune.cm\/article.html\/44496\/fr.html\/covid-19-variant-allegedly-linked-cameroon-public-health\">statement<\/a> that challenged the French paper and its conclusions.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThis information comes from an approximate summary of a \u201cpre-print\u201d type document \u2013 that is, a presentation of unvalidated scientific data,\u201d Malachie said. \u201cThe preliminary analysis of the data presented shows major shortcomings in the methodological approach leading to the resulting assertions. As a result, these documents have at this stage no scientific evidence status.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Malachie noted the small sample size of just eight patients in the report, arguing this was not enough data to even conclude a new Chinese coronavirus variant had been identified, let alone where it came from:<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span>Only one of the eight cases is presented as having made a trip to Cameroon without the chronology of events making it possible to establish a relationship between said trip and the alleged infection. Moreover, no chronological sequence of infections of the eight patients is presented, nor any element of contact analysis allowing the person who traveled to Cameroon to be considered as an index case.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The Cameroonian health minister said the French report bordered on \u201ca simple stigmatization of our country.\u201d He added it was \u201cregrettable\u201d that the authors did not reach out to his ministry for information, and accused the authors of seeking \u201cbuzz\u201d for discovering a new variant.<\/p>\n<p>Malachie also expressed concerns that unvalidated assertions of a new coronavirus variant originating in Cameroon could hurt attendance for the African National Championship soccer game to be held there in early February.<\/p>\n<p><span>The new strain, formally designated B.1.640.2 but nicknamed the \u201cIHU variant\u201d after the institute, was first detected in southeastern France in November but supposedly originated in the West African nation of Cameroon.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Patient Zero for the outbreak was described in the paper as an unidentified individual who spent three days in Cameroon, then returned home to a small town in France, where the infection spread to 12 more people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cThese observations show once again the unpredictability of the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants and their introduction from abroad, and they exemplify the difficulty to control such introduction and subsequent spread,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B3\" class=\"a8d adSo\"><\/figure>\n<p><span>The small number of patients made it difficult for researchers to determine if the IHU variant is more contagious or more dangerous than the basic Chinese coronavirus virus or much-discussed variants like delta and omicron.<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_19383034\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/media.breitbart.com\/media\/2022\/01\/GettyImages-1236923478.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-19383034\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/GettyImages-1236923478-1024x683-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"990\" height=\"660\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>A general view of a vaccination centre as a man registers before receiving his Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination centre in Yaounde, Cameroon, on November 29, 2021. Cameroon, one of the sub-Saharan African countries most affected by Covid-19, with more than 107,000 infections, including 1,795 deaths, preconceived ideas and misinformation on social networks holding back the vaccination campaign. (DANIEL BELOUMOU OLOMO\/AFP via Getty)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span>The original patient, fully vaccinated before contracting the disease, reportedly suffered from \u201cmild respiratory symptoms.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/new-coronavirus-variant-identified-in-france\/a-60329823\"><i><span>Deutsche Welle<\/span><\/i><\/a> <span>(DW) on Tuesday quoted Jorg Timm, head of the virology institute at University Hospital Dusseldorf, predicting the IHU variant will not cause \u201ctruly significant problems,\u201d since it \u201chasn\u2019t become prominent in areas where a lot of sequencing is being done.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) apparently concurs, as it has <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nydailynews.com\/coronavirus\/ny-covid-new-variant-46-mutations-france-cameroon-20220105-gasci4tizzfltftc3yg4s7kyre-story.html\"><span>not declared<\/span><\/a><span> IHU a \u201cvariant of interest\u201d or \u201cvariant of concern.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>At a press conference in Geneva on Tuesday, W.H.O. said the variant identified in France has \u201cbeen on our radar\u201d since before Omicron made headlines, and does not appear to have grown into a more serious threat despite having \u201chad a lot of chances to pick up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Some virologists hypothesized the IHU variant was essentially crushed by omicron, since it was first detected before omicron but has not spread nearly as widely or quickly. To date, the only confirmed cases of IHU transmission occurred in southern France, which makes the Cameroon connection somewhat tenuous.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>France <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bgdailynews.com\/news\/international\/france-sees-record-271-000-coronavirus-cases-in-single-day\/article_83b42ca7-be31-5560-91a7-e9ad5c7aaf7a.html\"><span>reported<\/span><\/a><span> a record-breaking 271,686 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, a surge largely attributed to the highly contagious, vaccine-resistant Omicron variant. France\u2019s case numbers doubled every day during the final week of 2021, leaving it with the highest number of active cases in Europe.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Africans responded <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.breitbart.com\/africa\/2021\/11\/29\/malawi-president-brands-biden-coronavirus-travel-ban-afrophobia\/\"><span>angrily<\/span><\/a><span> to travel bans hastily imposed by U.S. President Joe Biden and other Western leaders during the Omicron outbreak in November, accusing them of unfairly scapegoating Africa as the source of Omicron when it was merely isolated and classified by doctors in Botswana and South Africa. South Africa was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-59442129\"><span>especially bitter<\/span><\/a><span> about being \u201cpunished, instead of applauded\u201d for isolating Omicron, as the Foreign Ministry put it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In late November, Dutch researchers <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/news\/omicron-variant-covid-in-europe-netherlands-before-alert-raised\/\"><span>announced<\/span><\/a><span> finding the Omicron variant in clusters that were spreading through western Europe days before Omicron cases were confirmed in South Africa.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists from IHU Mediterranee Infection, a leading French institute of infectious disease microbiology, published a research paper this week describing another new variant of the Wuhan coronavirus.\u00a0 he paper suggested &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"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-1193498","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\/1193498","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\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1193498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193498\/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=1193498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1193498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1193498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}