COVID-19 mutation in Denmark 11/2020

AnnieA

AnnieA

Well-known Member
Location
Down South
This mink mutation in Denmark (along with recent news around the world about short lived antibodies and reinfection) is disturbing. There have been other mutations that were close enough that prior infection from an earlier strain provided immunity. This mutation is different. I'd hoped for natural herd immunity within the year but who knows what we're in for long term.

https://slate.com/technology/2020/11/coronavirus-mutation-minks-denmark.html

How a Coronavirus Mutation in Minks Could Wreak Havoc on Vaccine Development

Excerpts:

Officials in Denmark announced Wednesday that they would be euthanizing every last mink in the country’s fur farms, some 17 million animals. The news came after a discovery by Danish scientists that SARS-CoV-2, the official name for the virus that causes COVID-19, had mutated in captive minks, producing a strain of the coronavirus that is not readily stopped by antibodies to the dominant strain of the virus.​
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There are currently ...12 cases in humans, all workers at one of the roughly 1,100 mink farms in Denmark.​
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Police and military personnel are being deployed to destroy all minks on the remaining farms as soon as possible. ... All told, extermination of the minks will cost an estimated $785 million.​
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The development this week is the discovery that minks in Denmark are now testing positive for a mutant strain of the virus that is not readily destroyed by COVID antibodies. Experts warn that if the outbreak of this mutant strain is not sufficiently contained, the world could be facing a second pandemic.​
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The virus produced by the mink mutation, on the other hand, seems impervious to antibodies produced in response to the dominant strain of the virus. What makes this mutation so much more troubling than previous mutations is not that the mutation increases how quickly the virus will spread, nor that it increases the severity of resultant disease. It’s the fact that the immune system cannot transfer knowledge about one form of the virus in fighting the other form. From the perspective of your immune system, they are two different viruses altogether.​
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In other words, if you have survived COVID-19, your immune system remains largely unequipped to battle the mink strain. Once pharmaceutical companies finish their monthslong race to devise an effective COVID vaccine, the vaccine would likely provide little protection against the emerging strain. The virus has mutated into what could eventually be thought of as COVID 2.0 if the Danes fail to contain its spread.​
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There is a new strain of COVID in Denmark carried by minks. Denmark is going to cull its minks, don’t know how many will be killed. This strain does not produce many antibodies in its victims, and may require a different vaccine. What the heck?

Edited: a news report I read says Denmark is going to kill 15 million mink in order to try and contain the new strain of the virus.
 

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Sadly, the indications are that this virus is far from over. If the virus has mutated in one species of animal, I suppose it could happen in others. Does this mean more people will be dumping their pets, and will they have to be euthanized rather than risk further mutations?
 
Viruses, in general, will continue to mutate. This is how they try to beat our immune system.
Viruses need not make a whole new bacterium, but only need to change their structure to confuse the human immune system.

I did not get that information from the web, so you may want to fact check it.
 
oldman said:
Viruses, in general, will continue to mutate. This is how they try to beat our immune system.
Viruses need not make a whole new bacterium, but only need to change their structure to confuse the human immune system.

I did not get that information from the web, so you may want to fact check it.
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Google Denmark COVID-19 or Denmark COVID virus mutation, it’s all over the internet I had no problem finding it. It’s on CNN, ABC, aNd AP News, you might want to check your information.
 
oldman said:
Viruses, in general, will continue to mutate. This is how they try to beat our immune system.
Viruses need not make a whole new bacterium, but only need to change their structure to confuse the human immune system.

I did not get that information from the web, so you may want to fact check it.
Click to expand...
What am I checking? I’m not disagreeing with you.
I did find viruses do continue to mutate in different web pages.

I think where the confusion is that you are saying that there is a new strain of COVID. I’m not disagreeing with that. I am just stating that viruses, in general, will continue to mutate.
 
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oldman said:
What am I checking? I’m not disagreeing with you.
I did find viruses do continue to mutate in different web pages.

I think where the confusion is that you are saying that there is a new strain if COVID. I’m not disagreeing with that. I am just stating that viruses, in general, will continue to mutate.
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Oh, you asked me to check my information cause you didn’t find the information but AnnieA was kind enough to provide the link, so yes, now we are all in agreement.
 
Rosemarie said:
Sadly, the indications are that this virus is far from over. If the virus has mutated in one species of animal, I suppose it could happen in others. Does this mean more people will be dumping their pets, and will they have to be euthanized rather than risk further mutations?
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I don’t know but minks are wild as are bats. I wonder if there is a difference between wild animals getting stuff and domestic animals getting stuff. But why would you have to kill 15 million minks? How do you know that they all have it?what about the wild minks? No answers just questions.
 
Aneeda72 said:
I don’t know but minks are wild as are bats. I wonder if there is a difference between wild animals getting stuff and domestic animals getting stuff. But why would you have to kill 15 million minks? How do you know that they all have it?what about the wild minks? No answers just questions.
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Multiple mammals including bats, dog, minks and more can contract Covid-19 from another infected mammal including humans. That contact can occur in the wild, on farms and in homes as far as humans to pets.

More info about "animal-human interface" as the WHO terms it. In the WHO link, it's clear that the new variant has moved from mink to human and then from human to human in the 12 cases. But it isn't known if it's more or less severe, more or less transmissible etc than the prevalent strains.

From WHO, 7 Nov 2020

https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-...0/11/mink-strain-of-covid-19-virus-in-denmark


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AnnieA said:
Multiple mammals including bats, dog, minks and more can contract Covid-19 from another infected mammal including humans. That contact can occur in the wild, on farms and in homes as far as humans to pets.

More info about "animal-human interface" as the WHO terms it. In the WHO link, it's clear that the new variant has moved from mink to human and then from human to human in the 12 cases. But it isn't known if it's more or less severe, more or less transmissible etc than the prevalent strains.

From WHO, 7 Nov 2020

https://www.euro.who.int/en/health-...0/11/mink-strain-of-covid-19-virus-in-denmark


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So to make sure I understand what you are saying, the domestic minks had it first? Would that mean that the virus was not “made” in China? But caught in China as well. @AnnieA
 
Aneeda72 said:
So to make sure I understand what you are saying, the domestic minks had it first? Would that mean that the virus was not “made” in China? But caught in China as well. @AnnieA
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No. This is a brand new variant that is thought not to respond to antibodies from the original COVID-19 strain and all its slight mutations.

Just for simplicity's sake, I'll call the one that originated in China 1 and the new Denmark mink one 2.

Human 1 > mink 1 > mutation 2 > mink 2 > human 2 > human 2

I read that Danish scientists uploaded all their genome sequencing for the concerning variant (2) Thursday. Hopefully this will help other scientists around the world to be able to confirm whether or not the new mink variant responds to antibodies from the current pandemic.


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