Covid-19 Variant in California May explains sharp rise in cases

There has been a rise in Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year ‘s Day of Covid – 19 cases in almost all 50 states, but perhaps nothing more than California. In particular, Southern California, and even more precisely, Los Angeles County, has been experiencing unprecedented daily case accounts in the past 11 months. Hospitals have been in upgraded mode since the week before Christmas, with ICU capacity down to 0% in many facilities. Recalling New York City back in April 2020, cooling trucks for the bodies of those who died of complications from Covid-19 infections were spotted outside many hospitals, where morgues were recently flooded. weeks. Some hospitals have used tents, halls, and even hospital gift shops as patient care areas. Some hospitals were operating at 200% capacity. Most have eliminated non-emergency surgeries, procedures and admissions. Hospital patient mortality rates have risen, partly due to pressure on access to staff and equipment, and partly due to the fact that only the sickest patients would receive a patient hospital bed.

Original speculations that the weather would be relatively colder, even for Southern California, coupled with pandemic weakness and somnolence, all amid holiday and travel gatherings, explain the dramatic rise in cases, hospitals, and deaths. In early January 2021, test fitness in Los Angeles County was in the 20% range, with one Angeleno dying from Covid every six to eight minutes. But just as the UK has identified a more flexible variable, called B.1.1.7, South Africa has identified another transferable variable, with a third variable appearing in Japan and Brazil. , California has found one of its own.

The California strain, known as Cal.20C, was identified in 35-50% of recently diagnosed cases in Los Angeles. And as with the other variants around the world, all of which have crossed oceans and borders, the Cal.20C variant is more contagious than previous forms of coronavirus, or SARS-CoV2. Moreover, this and the previously mentioned variables are not usually more lethal, and do not cause more serious illnesses. The variant, although named for the most westerly state, has been found in other states in the Southwest as well as the Northeast.

It is not uncommon for viruses such as the coronavirus to undergo multiple mutations, each of which results in a small difference in the arrangement of the outer spike proteins. Some snails weaken the ability of the protein to bind to cells that stretch out the respiratory tract, but some, like the ones we encountered, allow the these proteins adhere to the lining more easily, making these changes more contagious. The mutation associated with the RA mutation, known as the L452 mutation, appears to have been found in the latest version in California, along with four other mutations. The difference with these five mutations is called Cal.20C. Results on how this snoring was identified were published in pre-print format on MedRxiv this week.

With the full release of the Covid-19 vaccine, concerns are being raised about whether vaccines will offer protection from these new variables (and more changes are likely in the future). There has been good evidence, albeit predictable, that the currently used Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines lead to antibody protection against the novel changes. However, some laboratories have shown a weaker antibody response to viruses that contain these mutations. It is very likely that, to date, many mutations have not yet been identified, and the so – called novel ones also appear to have been present for several months. As the past year has become one of the new data that emerges every day, the potential of the vaccines that are currently being released, as well as those that will be released. soon to be released, leading to worldwide protection from mutliple modifications of Covid-19 yet to be tested.