Arathrael
Pro-Bowler
Offline
I don't know if any of this is being covered in the US media, but we're gradually getting a better picture of the B.1.617.2 variant (the one first seen in India), and it's not a disaster, but it's not ideal either.
John Burn-Murdoch on twitter has a good overview of the current picture. A few of the key points:
Cases are rising in the UK:
B.1.1.7 (UK variant) has been falling, B.1.617.2, rising (B.1.617.2 is now dominant in the UK):
But, the cases are staying low in the fully vaccinated groups (and deaths are following accordingly):
Summary:
And note that other countries are likely to see this too:
Initial indications are that vaccination is very effective (not 100%, but very high) against hospitalisation, so that's good:
The general picture seems to be that B.1.617.2 is more transmissible than B.1.1.7, but vaccinations are still effective. I've seen some modelling for UK that predicts, with the measures still in place, we'd see a modest rise. But if we fully unlock in June (as is currently planned), the modelling indicates we could see a very large rise as this variant runs wild in the not fully vaccinated population, and this could still cause problems for healthcare (as, while a lower proportion of younger people will be hospitalised, a small proportion of a very large number can still be a large number).
My conclusion is get vaccinated, keep an eye in the situation in your area, and if cases are rising, keep taking sensible precautions.
John Burn-Murdoch on twitter has a good overview of the current picture. A few of the key points:
Cases are rising in the UK:
B.1.1.7 (UK variant) has been falling, B.1.617.2, rising (B.1.617.2 is now dominant in the UK):
But, the cases are staying low in the fully vaccinated groups (and deaths are following accordingly):
Summary:
And note that other countries are likely to see this too:
Initial indications are that vaccination is very effective (not 100%, but very high) against hospitalisation, so that's good:
The general picture seems to be that B.1.617.2 is more transmissible than B.1.1.7, but vaccinations are still effective. I've seen some modelling for UK that predicts, with the measures still in place, we'd see a modest rise. But if we fully unlock in June (as is currently planned), the modelling indicates we could see a very large rise as this variant runs wild in the not fully vaccinated population, and this could still cause problems for healthcare (as, while a lower proportion of younger people will be hospitalised, a small proportion of a very large number can still be a large number).
My conclusion is get vaccinated, keep an eye in the situation in your area, and if cases are rising, keep taking sensible precautions.