A new variant of coronavirus in Britain, according to researchers, which spreads 70% more effectively, causes Prime Minister Boris Johnson to close many parts of the country for Christmas.
The new strain of COVID-19 is no more deadly than the original virus, nor does it appear to make people sicker. But it spreads more easily and this has scared the British government into basically canceling Christmas.
Researchers believe the vaccine developed by Pfizer will continue to be effective, but scientists are committed to confirming it.
CNN:
According to Whitty, the new variant is responsible for 60% of infections in London, which have almost doubled in the last week.
Earlier, he said work is being done urgently to determine if the new strain, prevalent in the south-east of England, could cause a higher mortality rate.
“There is no current evidence to indicate that the new strain will cause a higher mortality rate or affect vaccines and treatments, although urgent work is being done to confirm this,” Whitty said in a statement.
There does not appear to be any large-scale virus fatigue, as in America. But given these restrictions, expect some resistance soon.
NBCNews:
As a result, shops, gyms, movie theaters, hairdressers and non-essential bowling alleys will be forced to close for two weeks, while people will be limited to meeting another person from another home in an outdoor public space.
A “bubble” policy, which will allow up to three households to meet during the holiday period, will be severely curtailed and will only be implemented on Christmas Day, Johnson said.
He added that he “bitterly regretted” the changes, but insisted the changes were “necessary.”
Don’t be surprised if this number is revised downwards – 70% faster than the spread of the virus. This estimate is based on a “preliminary modeling” involving only a couple of thousand cases. Obviously, the more data you have, the more accurate your model will be. We’ll see how quickly the new variant spreads in a month or two.
In the meantime, one might ask why does this make any difference? If the vaccine is still effective against it (not yet proven) and the mortality rate is not higher, why worry?
The faster the coronavirus spreads, the more people will get sick. More sick people will need more hospital beds. And while the percentage of seriously ill people is likely to remain stable, more infections mean seriously ill and dead people.
So Johnson felt he had to act. Closing the country for a couple of weeks will not help. The new variant will still be present when the locks end. This is a lesson we learned from spring closures here. And once the virus re-infects people, we start the same cycle as before: we reopen, followed by restrictions, followed by relaxed restrictions, followed by another blockage.
This vaccine will not arrive soon enough.