Indian Covid Variant

[Sunk]

The new variant is causing a big increase in new cases and deaths in India. There are calls for India to be added to the red list of countries where it is forbidden to travel.

Boris Johnson is flying to India at the end of the month for talks (which presumably could be done over Zoom instead).

Surely he MUST cancel this junket ?

[ichkeria]

Just to be clear:
"Red list" means you can't travel FROM the country (without severe restrictions anyway) not TO it.

Aside from anything else, with well over a quarter of a million new cases per day in India, that is a pretty impressive level of testing.

[Sunk]

Thanks for the correction ichkeria.

So we could let Boris go, but forbid him returning from India :-)

[ichkeria]

Sounds good to me :-)

Joking aside, I think he should go if at all possible, but the situation in India is horrendous, with confusion reigning as to how resistant the different mutants are to vaccines.

[mushroom25]

i suspect trade talks is not something that could be concluded in a few hours, and a videocall meeting of anything more that 3 hours will do your head in. plus, although both Boris and his hosts share a common spoken language, unspoken communication, gestures, emphasis, all tend to get lost unless both sides are exactly on the same wavelength.

[naomi24]

//that is a pretty impressive level of testing.//

Maybe they're not testing that well at all - just counting the number of people dropping like flies. They have patients lying on hospital floors.

[ichkeria]

Yes many of those may just be hospital cases. Tho they’d presumably be subject to an official diagnosis.
260,000 registrations of any sort is still impressive.

[fender62]

how many have died or dying in the slums, let alone all the people who went to that hindu festival and bathed in the polluted ganges
and drank from it, plus all the gastrointestinal problems, and who knows what other health problems from that river, real mess is india.

[andres]

India is not the only country to be having serious problems with the virus.There are lots of worrying situations regarding Covid all over the world.One in particular is the number of babies and young children dying in Brazil.Then there is Chile where despite an excellent vaccination programme they are now experiencing a massive surge in new cases.

[gulliver1]

Sunk 12.14 "So we could let Boris go , but forbid him returning" Can I pay for his one way ticket please .

[shoota]

I suspect there is more than trade to talk about, (eg Russia and Myanmar,) that is best done face to face.

[tiggerblue10]

What I'm curious about is China and why their reported figures are so low. The rest of the world has gone through wave after wave and China seems to be immune from these waves?

[shoota]

China lies

[fender62]

tiggerblue10, unlike us china can literally control there population
plus they only tell the world what they want to hear and what benefits china.

[tiggerblue10]

Of course it's lies. I don't for one minute believe they have had less than 5k deaths.

[emmie]

why is it a junket.

[emmie]

shoota exactly my thoughts.

[youngmafbog]

No, unless absolutely necessary he should not cancel this, and it certainly is no junket.

Numbers seem very high but you have to remember the population on India is 1.4 Bn. I doubt they know what the true figures are one way or another, communication outside the cities is extremely poor as is medical treatment.

[grumpy01]

Also YMB they live in multigenerational housing which are very close together.Sadly mass infection is inevitable.

[Peter Pedant]

well he has had it remember
and been vaccinated - so yes he can go
who cares if he gets it again?

The question misses the point - what do we in dear old Blighty do about the indian variant
(lots of technical points coming up boys and girls - put your gas masks on!)

It is variant B.1.617 Indian variant - and the big question since we do 50% of analyses, is it important

they had R4 Dr sensible who was NOT on Sage or Nervtag
and the points he made were
1) you do challenge expts ( one being done now ) very slow
2) vaccine experiments even longer term
3) molec analysis - The Prof was hot on that but we havent heard from him in a few weeks. - and then ask an intellect what shape shifter this sends the virus into - the prof that is. The important one is the binding site ( smaller: RBD receptor binding domain) and whether this has changed. And whether the changes mean - - - vaccine escape!
4) look at virus infection returns and model

and he basically said the jury is still out on that

THEN we had a SAGE fella who was "speaking personally" and HE said a) I godda be a tenured prof
b) I need lots and lots of techies paid for by the govt
c ) I need a jolly big computer to keep up wiv fings
d) I need badly a visit to the palace, a pay rise, and pesions and my onw readio show

and the hack burbled, how fascinating, yes yes very clear.....

have fun

[emmie]

Boris has cancelled the trip over covid fears


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56800305