(And so it begins.  More doom and gloom to scare people into complying with what
the government thinks you should do.  As an aside, thanks to the US' porous
borders, we can expect this crud to arrive here within days.)

From: https://tinyurl.com/rzevh24h
===
    Lambda Variant's `Unusual' Mutations May Make It Resistant to Vaccines:
                                  Researchers

   By Isabel van Brugen
   July 6, 2021
   Updated: July 6, 2021

   Scientists are concerned that a newly labeled COVID-19 variant, first
   detected in Peru, may be resistant to COVID-19 vaccines due to "unusual"
   mutations.

   The Lambda variant, also known as C.37, is believed to have first emerged
   in Peru in August last year, but has only been recognized as a potential
   global threat in recent weeks, with the World Health Organization (WHO)
   declaring it a variant of interest on June 17 after it appeared in several
   countries simultaneously.

   The WHO said the variant's "neutralizing antibodies" could increase its
   transmissibility or potentially increase its resistance. It was
   "associated with substantive rates of community transmission in multiple
   countries," it said.

   In Peru, the Lambda strain now accounts for 82 percent of new infections.
   Meanwhile, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico, have
   all confirmed widespread cases of the variant.

   WHO virologist Jairo Mendez-Rico told DW that although the strain may
   exhibit higher infection rates, there is no indication that it is more
   aggressive.

   Mendez-Rico told the outlet that more data is needed to compare the newly
   labeled strain to other existing strains such as gamma (P.1) and delta
   (B.1.617.2), which have already been categorized by the WHO as variants of
   concern.

   Jeff Barrett, director of the COVID-19 Genomics Initiative at the Wellcome
   Sanger Institute in the UK, told the Financial Times that it is
   challenging to "make sense of the threat from Lambda, using computational
   and lab data" because it has "rather an unusual set of mutations, compared
   with other variants."

   According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, no cases of
   the Lambda strain have been recorded in the United States so far.

   Researchers from the University of Chile in Santiago said in a study
   published in a preprint last week that the variant has "a considerable
   potential to become a variant of concern."

   "Our data show for the first time that mutations present in the spike
   protein of the Lambda variant confer escape to neutralizing antibodies and
   increased infectivity," wrote researchers in the paper that has yet to be
   peer-reviewed.

   "Considering that this variant has rapidly spread in Peru, Ecuador, Chile,
   and Argentina, we believe that Lambda has a considerable potential to
   become a variant of concern," they wrote.

   The WHO said that further studies are needed to "validate the continued
   effectiveness of vaccines" with the Lambda strain.
===

--- FleetStreet 1.27.1
 * Origin: Outpost BBS Local Console * bbs.outpostbbs.net:10123 (618:618/10)