New U.K. variant not only more transmissible but 30% more deadly... New UK Covid variant may be 30% more deadly, says Johnson PM warns B117 may increase death rate as well as being up to 70% more transmissible https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...variant-may-be-more-deadly-says-boris-johnson The new UK coronavirus variant may be 30% more deadly, Boris Johnson said on Friday as he warned of stricter travel curbs and continued lockdown measures while the infection rate remains “forbiddingly high”. In findings that dampened hopes of the increasingly prevalent B117 variant becoming less lethal over time, researchers on the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) concluded that it may increase the death rate by 30%-40%. Scientists urged tighter controls, and one said the news could take the country “back to square one”. It is also likely to increase the concerns of EU leaders, who were already considering strengthening border measures against the “British mutation”. Addressing a Downing Street press conference on Friday, the prime minister struck an extremely cautious note when asked about the prospects of any imminent return to normal life, despite the rapid pace of the vaccine programme. One in 10 adults in England had been vaccinated, he said. Reasons why Covid variant could kill more people are uncertain “Currently, the rate of infection is forbiddingly high, and I think we have to be realistic about that,” he said. “I think we will have to live with coronavirus in one way or another for a long while to come. I think it is an open question as to when and in what way we can start to relax any of the measures. Obviously, we want to do everything we can to open up but only safely, only cautiously.” (More at above url)
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/22/politics/birx-quitting-white-house-covid-task-force/index.html Birx: I always considered quitting Trump's White House Covid task force
Biden / Harris administration probably vetted her very closely due to the fact she remained with the Trump / Pence administration all the way to the end without contradicting the Covid-19 policies. Biden / Harris probably discover some concerning issues and then decided not to invite her to join their Covid-19 task force. Another possibility, she knew she was going to retire soon and decided to keep her mouth shut without jeopardizing her retirement benefits. wrbtrader
Narrative change: Now that Biden is president the actual truth can be told. Previously, liberals didn't want the truth out because orange man bad and it is all Trump's fault. It is blatantly obvious that the highest probability is that Covid-19 started due to a leak from the Wuhan lab. But, the press couldn't allow that truth to be told. https://torontosun.com/news/world/who-advisor-covid-19-pandemic-started-via-a-lab-leak WHO advisor: COVID-19 pandemic likely started via lab leak Calls wet market origin story a lie One year after the pandemic started, World Health Organization advisor Jamie Metzl wants China to come clean about the origins of the COVID-19 virus. The Kansas City-born, New York-based Metzl, who served as Deputy Staff Director of the Foreign Relations Committee under then Senator Joe Biden (2001-2003) and before that on the National Security Council (1997-99) and the State Department (1999-01) under President Bill Clinton), theorizes it was most likely an accidental lab leak in Wuhan. “There’s no irrefutable evidence,” said Metzl, who was appointed to the WHO’s expert advisory committee on human genome editing in 2019 and is also the author of Hacking Darwin. “There’s just more evidence and as more evidence arrives, the case for accidental lab leak, in my view, increases.” What about the original theory that this all started in a wet market in Wuhan? That was a lie. And the Chinese government knew very early on that that was a lie. And so in the face of overwhelming evidence in May of last year, the Chinese government shifted its position. Do you get the idea of scary viruses being created in a lab may seem a little sci-fi? It may feel like sci-fi to people but what’s happening is sci. There is a field of study called “gain of function” research, which is highly controversial in which some scientists amplify the virility of viruses. We know that the Wuhan Institute of Virology was involved in gain of function research on bat coronaviruses.
If you doubt masks, then you're a retard (or so Des told me - thx!). Check out this chart, science denier.
yeah, we noticed... https://www.cbsnews.com/news/deborah-birx-covid-response-team-trump-white-house/ Birx says there was no "full-time team" working on COVID response in Trump White House
As usual.... it is someone who came in from outside the country and was released after two weeks of quarantine... New Zealand identifies first community spread of COVID-19 since November https://thehill.com/policy/internat...t-community-spread-of-covid-19-since-november New Zealand identified its first community spread case of COVID-19 since November on Sunday after a 56-year-old woman tested positive for the coronavirus strain that is thought to have originated in South Africa. Officials announced that the woman had tested positive for COVID-19 after leaving her two-week mandatory isolation following her return to the country from Europe on Dec. 30 for work. Before leaving the quarantine facility in Auckland, the woman had twice tested negative for the virus, COVID-19 response minister Chris Hipkins said, according to Reuters. Authorities said they think the woman contracted the more contagious strain from a fellow person at the isolation facility. Hipkins said officials were examining whether the virus could have spread through the ventilation and air conditioning systems. Officials found 15 close contacts of the woman, and the closest contacts, her husband and hairdresser, had tested negative. The test results from the rest of the contacts were expected to come back on Monday, The Guardian reported. New Zealand last documented a COVID-19 community transmission in November, Reuters reported, citing the Health Ministry website. The country is known for having one of the most strict responses to the pandemic and has recorded 2,288 cases and 25 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The community transmission comes as several variants of the coronavirus are spreading around the world, including a strain believed to be more contagious originally discovered in the United Kingdom. The variant from South Africa that is 50 percent more infectious has been found in at least 20 countries. In the U.S., President Biden is expected to ban non-U.S. citizens who had visited South Africa in the last two weeks from entry and reinstate restrictions against travelers from several countries including the U.K.