Is Covid plunging into the fourth wave?Depends on who you ask

The Washington Post: Are we in the “fourth wave” of the pandemic? Experts do not agree.

I can’t see the data well. After a few weeks of decline, the average number of new coronavirus infections reported daily is higher than it was a month ago. The number of people in a hospital with covid-19 has been stubbornly stagnant since mid-March. Also, despite the prevalence of highly contagious virus variants, state leaders are easing safety measures. Now this is a familiar script. But this time around, there is disagreement about what the major epidemiologists in the country call this latest stage of the pandemic. Is the United States at the top of the “fourth wave”? Or are you looking at the last gasping of the 14th month crisis? (Thebault, 4/4)

Fox News: “Fourth Wave” of Mutant Coronavirus Infections Seen in the United States: Osterholm

Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Osterholm believes that a “fourth wave” of infection by coronavirus variants that has occurred in the past few months has been seen in the United States. Osterholm, a member of President Biden’s COVID-19 Transition Advisory Committee, emphasized that existing vaccines appear to be effective against them, but the mutants are significant. He said it would cause problems. “In a way, I believe we’re in an almost new pandemic,” Osterholm told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace. “The only good news is that the current vaccine is effective against this particular variant B.1.1.7” (Aitken, 4/4).

NPR: Fauci hopes to keep the fourth coronavirus wave away due to the surge in vaccination

Currently, more than 56 million people in the United States are vaccinated against COVID-19. Nevertheless, cases are increasing again in some parts of the country, especially in Michigan and the northeastern states. However, Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the Biden administration, predicts that the increase in vaccination will not make the fourth wave of coronavirus as serious as the previous three in the United States. “It’s like a race between the potential for spikes and the ability to vaccinate as many people as possible,” he said in an interview with the Morning Edition of NPR on Friday. “And hopefully, if you want this to be a figurative race, the vaccine will win.” (King, 4/2)

CNN: Another Covid-19 surge in the United States could have one major difference: who is most affected

According to experts, Covid-19 vaccination in the United States is going very well, but not enough people have been protected yet and the country may be starting to surge again. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States reported more than 4 million Covid-19 vaccines over the weekend for 24 hours. Also, according to CDC data, the country currently receives an average of more than 3 million doses daily. However, only about 18.5% of Americans are fully vaccinated, CDC data show, and Covid-19 cases in the country have recently been seen with an increase. (Maxouris, 4/5)

Virus surges in California and Maryland —

Bay Area Newsgroup: COVID: California reports most new cases in almost four weeks

California reported nearly 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on Friday. This is the highest daily total in almost a month, with fewer deaths and hospitalizations and an increasing proportion of the adult population fully vaccinated against the virus. According to data tracked by the press, the 3,984 new cases reported by the county were the most reported in the day since March 9. March 15th. The slight increase occurs after a few weeks when the number of cases is small and decreasing. This begins in early November, peaks on holidays, and follows a massive winter surge that declined until February. (Castañeda, 4/5)

San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area “Double Mutant” Coronavirus Variant Surface.This is what we know

There are yet another variants of the coronavirus in the bay area. Through genomic sequencing, Stanford Healthcare spokesman Lisa Kim said the Stanford Institute for Clinical Virology has identified and confirmed a new mutant that originated in India. Stanford is screening seven other putative cases. The location of the confirmed cases has not been revealed. This mutant is called a “double mutant” because the virus has two mutations that help it latch into cells. It could probably be the cause of a nasty new surge in the incident in India. Kim said it is not yet known whether the mutants are more infectious or resistant to vaccine antibodies. (Fan, 4/4)

Baltimore Sun: Maryland reports 1,669 cases of coronavirus, state reports eight deaths per day, the highest since January

Maryland health officials reported 1,669 new cases of coronavirus and eight more deaths on Sunday. According to the state, in late March, the state’s average positive test rate was above the World Health Organization’s recommended 5% level, despite the fact that more than 1.1 million people were fully vaccinated. The rise in Maryland’s infection rate, which began, continues until April. Jurisdiction is reached before social distance or business restrictions are relaxed. (Davis, 4/4)

Also-

Fox News: UK coronavirus variants are likely to be undetected and distributed in the United States for months, researchers say.

According to a new analysis by researchers, the more contagious coronavirus mutant first detected in the United Kingdom may have been transmitted to the United States months before it was discovered. In fact, the B.1.1.7 variant may have been “quietly spread” in 15 other countries before it was identified in the United Kingdom in December 2020. “By the time we learned about the UK variant in December, it was already quietly spreading. Lauren Anselmyers, director of the COVID-19 Modeling Consortium at the University of Texas at Austin and professor of integrated biology, Eurekalert.org “The B.1.1.7 variant is likely to have arrived in the United States by October 2020, two months before we knew it existed,” said in a news release posted in. “(Hein, 4/2)

Bloomberg: Covid-19 coronavirus mutants multiply as scientists compete to decipher variations

Some scientists were skeptical when Bette Korber, a biologist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, discovered the first significant mutation in the Covid-19 virus last spring. They did not believe it would make the virus more contagious, and said its rapid increase could be just a coincidence. Now, 11 months later, the D614G mutation she discovered is ubiquitous around the world and is characterized by the genome of the rapidly spreading mutants from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. Meanwhile, new mutations are emerging in increasingly complex patterns, stimulating leading biologists to devise new ways to track incoming genomic data fire hoses. (Langless, 4/5)

Modern Healthcare: Increased viral mutations are consistent with increased COVID-19 cases

The surge in COVID-19 cases last year coincided with the emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 mutants, and new studies were discovered. According to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 dashboard, SARS-CoV-2 has spread worldwide since its first declaration as a pandemic in March 2020, with an estimated 129 million COVID-19 and 2.8 million people. Caused the death of. By studying SARS-CoV-2 samples from the early days of the pandemic, researchers at the University of California, Davis have developed an index called the Pathogen Genome Identity (GENI) score that measures the genetic diversity of the virus. did. SARS-CoV-2 contains only 15 genes and has a high mutation rate, and in recent months there have been concerns about mutants such as B.1.351, B.1.1.7, and P.1. It is appearing. (4/4)