Why India Matters

 


The prime minister assures us that there's no need to halt flights from India to Canada due to the risk of spreading Covid-19.  Mr. Trudeau says his government has all the bases covered. They already have all the needed measures in place.

We've seen Covid variants, mutations, from the UK, Brazil and South Africa. They tend to be more transmissible, i.e. more contagious.

India, the peril du jour, has its own Covid mutation, not one but two mutations. 

It has two critical mutations that could lead to an improvement in the ability of the virus to bind with human cells. This makes it more effective.

The B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV-2 carries two mutations, E484Q and L452R. Both are separately found in many other coronavirus variants, but they have been reported together for the first time in India.

What is more worrying is that this variant is showing the ability to escape the human immune system and evade antibodies created by a prior infection or by vaccination.

But wait, there's more. Yesterday, the Times of India reported on the emergence of another variant, a triple mutant strain of Covid. The triple mutant strain is thought to have emerged from the more widespread double mutation variant. But surely the Indian government has the problem in hand, right? Sorry, no.

Yesterday the prime minister, Narendra Modi, delivered a speech in which he decried the idea of lockdowns. Today, India's Supreme Court ordered the government to produce a "national plan" to ensure adequate supply of medical oxygen, essential drugs and a method of widespread vaccination. That doesn't sound like a government that has control of the situation, does it?

A week ago India was in the news when it set a single-day infection record of 200,000. Yesterday saw 295,000 new infections. Today it's just shy of 315,000 new infections.

When this background is taken into account, our prime minister's response sounds awfully glib.

A new variant that is said to be antibody and vaccine resistant and able to defeat healthy immune systems shouldn't be taken lightly.

Comments

  1. TrailblazerApril 22, 2021 at 11:48 AM


    They, India are not alone in the export of covid.

    https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/u-s-the-biggest-source-of-covid-19-brought-into-canada-study-finds

    TB

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibApril 22, 2021 at 12:23 PM

      Of course they're 'not alone' TB. Did I suggest they were?

      What I'm concerned about, as are many of the experts, is the emergent double and triple mutant variants from India that could be deadlier even than the UK, Brazilian and South African variants.

      The arrival of an antibody and vaccine resistant variant shouldn't be taken lightly. Read the links and you'll see how little this situation has to do with the Covid Classic from the US.

      Delete
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