Experts say California’s brutal winter COVID-19 surge is largely driven by complacency on masking and distancing. One calls it ‘COVID resentment.’To clarify B.1.426’s role in the surge, investigators will need to determine just how much devastation it is capable of producing. That inquiry will focus on its transmissibility as well as its ability to circumvent the tools — including masks, drugs and vaccines — that can be used to bring the pandemic under control.
For now, both sets of researchers doubt they have found a lone actor. But they may have caught an accomplice.Chiu said his skepticism stems in part from the fact that the surge in cases across the state seems to have begun before the new strain saw its steepest growth. “It may have contributed to this surge, or simply gone along for the ride,” he said.
In addition, the strain’s sudden prominence among viral samples in Northern California could be due in part to its role inat Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center that infected at least 77 staffers and 15 patients, and resulted in one employee death. Officials are investigating whether an infected but asymptomatic employee was able to spread the virus widely with the help of a battery-powered fan that was part of an inflatable Christmas tree costume.
In Southern California, where the timelines of the surge and B.1.426’s emergence seem better aligned, researchers are more inclined to blame the virus.“It probably helped to accelerate the number of cases around the holiday season,” Vail said. “But human behavior is the predominant factor in the spread of a virus, and the fact that it happened when the weather became colder and in the midst of the holidays when people gather is not an accident.
Homegrown sounds like this strain was made in California! Lol
Couldn't just be the natural patterns of viruses, could it? Notice the remarkable similarity of the N. Tropical pattern and the states of CA, AZ, TX, FL, MS, AL, etc. June-August bump and then a heavier hit in December with a tapering in January. Hmmm.
skarlamangla New buzzword of for team apocalypse: variant.
Homegrown? No, it's from WuhanCoronavirus
Yes. Not to mention b117 that we were so very slow to detect.
What.
Hey maybe choose a different word other than “homegrown”? Implies something far more nefarious than I think you’re intending - maybe drop homegrown for “unique/new/ + local” strain
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