New 'mu' COVID-19 variant now found in 49 US states

[Botany]

Since being discovered in Colombia in January, the mu variant of COVID-19 has spread to nearly four dozen countries and has made its presence known in Hawaii and Alaska. It has so far been found in 49 states with Nebraska being the only state to not have a mu variant case detected.

Health officials believe mu is even more transmissible than the delta variant and has the potential to resist vaccines.

snip

“This is what makes getting vaccinated and layering protections so important. These are actions that break the chain of transmission and limits COVID-19 proliferation that allows for the virus to mutate into something that could be more dangerous.”

snip

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that health officials were maintaining a “close eye” on the mu variant despite it being “not at all even close” to becoming the dominant COVID-19 strain in the U.S.

“Even though it has not in essence taken hold to any extent here we always pay attention to at all times variants,” Fauci said.

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/new-mu-covid-19-variant-now-found-in-49-us-states/

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Thanx to all those mouth breathing anti vaccine idiots we still have 10s of millions of people walking around
who can be hosts to the virus and giving the virus and nice "home" where it can live and mutate in.

[lagomorph777]

1. Every employer should have a vax mandate. Every child should be allowed to be vaxxed.

No more dicking around. We do this or everybody dies.

[Zeitghost]

3. Please

Stop with the fear mongering. As serious as the situation is, we are not anywhere near "everybody dies".

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. No, maybe just a billion or two.

Let’s not fear monger now.

[lagomorph777]

5. Millions around the world have already died. The pandemic is accelerating again.

Insane cult followers worldwide are doing everything they can to exacerbate the situation.

Sorry, not relaxing here. I'm not a fool.

[Hugin]

6. +1

[Zeitghost]

11. Again...

I didn't say relax, I understand the situation is serious. But "everybody dies" is fear mongering BS.

[lagomorph777]

13. The trends are accelerating; we are breeding variants faster than ever.

Our modern civilization is a perfect host for the virus. We can't convince a substantial minority of our population that the threat is real. This pandemic will go as far as we allow it to, and current indications are that we will allow it to go nearly unchecked forever. The end game in the present scenario is that the virus burns out only when there are too few humans to transmit it.

Look at the DNA bottleneck 15,000 years ago. The human species is fragile. All of our modern toys make us even more fragile.

[Zeitghost]

15. COVID is here to stay

But the pandemic will fade away. It would be much quicker if people would just get vaxxed, but one way or another we will all get immunity and some (less than 1% of those infected here in the US) will die. But we are nowhere close to "everybody dies". At first I suspected you were simply being hyperbolic for emotional effect. But if you truly believe "everybody dies", please, do some research before continuing to spread excessive fear.

[madaboutharry]

2. This is just infuriating.

There is no reason that we need to be in this situation now. I am so sick and tired of these morons who have refused to behave like responsible adults. I think it is now time for drastic measures where there needs to be federal intervention. There must be some form of a federal emergency that President Biden can implement to help get this under control.

I just can't imagine the suffering of vulnerable children at this point.

[lagomorph777]

7. Mask bans in schools; not allowed to vaccinate kids; marching them off to their deaths in schools.

This is how civilizations die.

[Botany]

9. "This is just infuriating."

2 things:

Yes it is we should have put much of this "thing" behind us by now but I have no doubt that
powerful right wing forces and Russia have been spoon feeding deliberate misinformation to
the MAGA mouth breathing idiots in order to keep the pandemic going.

If Hillary hadn't been rat fucked out of the Presidency we and the world would not be going
through this nightmare. Barack Obama left the personal, protocols, materials, and international
agreements/organizations in place that would have greatly reduced the pandemic if not stopped
it in China but Trump got rid of all those things.

[lagomorph777]

14. Putin has a lot to gain by killing off Americans; his allies here are helping him do it.

His disinformation campaigns on Falsebook and Twit are also incredibly successful.

[Pobeka]

8. Makes me wonder "what's up with that?" Mu case #'s declining in U.S.?

The U.S. saw its peak of mu variant cases in mid-July but case numbers involving that variant have been declining since, signaling either a weakening of the strain or indicating a worrisome future.

Given the generally shoddy reporting of the news media, this could mean something important or it's another science fact taken out of context or morphed from it's true meaning ... ???

[herding cats]

16. It's definitely shoddy reporting. My take below.

Delta is more infectious and as such out preforming Mu at this moment in time.

Two things can happen here. We get vaccinated in large enough numbers and layer mitigation factors before Delta wanes and Mu starves out. Think Beta in the UK. Or we don't and come January to February (ish) Mu takes off.

[CrispyQ]

10. Wait till the MAGA variant gets out there.

Stupid MAGAs cooking up their own strain of virus.

[Steelrolled]

12. The new variants seems to quickly transport globally

As long as we are vaccinating people as fast as we can make it, worldwide, I'm not too bothered. There are many countries with just a few percent vaccinated.