گونه جهشیافته ویروس کرونا در بریتانیا؛ تا چه حد باید نگران باشیم

گونه جهش‌یافته ویروس کرونا در بریتانیا؛ تا چه حد باید نگران باشیم؟

درست همان زمان که واکسن‌ها، امیدبخش آغاز پایان دنیاگیری کووید 19 شدند، مقام‌ها در بریتانیا به‌‌دنبال شیوع گونه‌ای واگیردارتر از ویروس کرونا زنگ‌های خطر را به صدا درآوردند.

شیوع گونه‌ای واگیردارتر از ویروس کرونا در بریتانیا موجب افزایش نگرانی‌ها و آشفتگی در اروپا شده است. امروز دوشنبه، کشورهای اروپایی با اعمال ممنوعیت ورود مسافران از بریتانیا، لغو پروازها از این کشور و قطع مسیرهای تجاری، وضعیتی را تداعی کردند که یادآور نخستین روزهای هراس‌آور دنیاگیری در ابتدای امسال است.

پس از آنکه بوریس جانسون، نخست‌وزیر بریتانیا گفت واریانت جدید با نام B.1.1.7 تا 70 درصد واگیردارتر از دیگر گونه‌ها است، نگرانی از جهش تازه‌ی ویروس کرونا افزایش یافت. همچنین به‌نقل از دولت این کشور، تکامل گونه‌ی جدید ممکن است موجب مقاومت ویروس در برابر واکسن‌های جدید شود. بااین‌حال، به‌گفته‌ی موگ سویک، متخصص بیماری‌های عفونی در دانشگاه سنت اندروز در اسکاتلند و مشاور علمی دولت بریتانیا، برآورد 70 درصد از انتقال‌پذیری بیشتر صرفا برپایه‌ی مدلسازی بیان شده و هنوز در آزمون‌های آزمایشگاهی به اثبات نرسیده است. مقام‌های بریتانیا می‌گویند هیچ دلیلی وجود نداریم که باور کنیم گونه‌ی جدید موجب بیماری شدیدتر می‌شود. همچنین، سال‌ها (نه ‌ماه‌ها) طول می‌کشد تا ویروس به‌قدری تکامل یابد که واکسن‌های کنونی را ناتوان کند.

بااین‌اوصاف، آمارها زنگ خطر را در سرتاسر جهان به‌صدا درآورده است. فرانسه با تعلیق 48 ساعته‌ی حمل‌ونقل کالا از مسیر کانال مانش، صدها راننده‌ی کامیون را در ماشین‌هایشان محبوس و جاده‌های منتهی به بنادر انگلیس را به محوطه‌های پارک خودرو تبدیل کرد. نزدیک به یک‌چهارم از تمام غذای مصرفی در بریتانیا در اتحادیه‌ی اروپا تولید می‌شود و محدودیت‌های اخیر، نگرانی درباره‌ی احتمال کمبود غذا را افزایش داده است.

استرالیا، بلژیک، بلغارستان، فرانسه، آلمان، ایرلند، ایتالیا و هلند همگی دست به اعمال محدودیت‌های سفر زده‌اند. یکشنبه شب، مسافران هوایی از بریتانیا به مقصد آلمان در فرودگاه‌ها بازداشت شدند. لهستان می‌گوید پروازها بین دو کشور را با شروع هفته از دوشنبه متوقف خواهد کرد. هنگ‌کنگ نیز امروز با بستن مرزهایش به‌روی مسافران از بریتانیا گفت پروازهای مسافری از این کشور از نیمه‌شب لغو خواهد شد. این محدودیت نخستین‌بار ساکنان هنگ‌کنگ نیز دربرخواهد گرفت. کانادا، هند، ایران و روسیه نیز محدودیت‌های جدید وضع کرده‌اند.

درهمین‌حال، دانشمندان به‌سختی درحال تلاش برای فهمیدن این مسئله هستند که آیا گونه‌ی جدید واقعا سرعتی بیشتر در انتقال از انسان به انسان دارد یا نه. آن‌ها همچنین از خود می‌پرسند که گونه‌ی جدید چگونه تا این حد سریع تکامل یافته است. B.1.1.7 به‌نحو کاملا بی‌سابقه به‌طور هم‌زمان 17 جهش کسب کرده است. متخصصان اکنون به‌سرعت مشغول تعیین مشخصات برخی از این جهش‌ها در آزمایشگاه هستند.

پژوهشگران به‌طور آنی و بسیار نزدیک‌تر از هر ویروس دیگر در تاریخ، بر تکامل ویروس کرونای جدید (SAR-CoV-2) نظارت کرده‌اند. تاکنون ویروس جهش‌های فراوانی را با نرخ تقریبی یک تا دو تغییر در ماه انباشته کرده است؛ بدین معنا که بسیاری از ژنوم‌های توالی‌یابی‌شده تا به امروز در نزدیک به 20 نقطه با توالی‌های ژنوم اولیه در چین در ماه ژانویه تفاوت دارد. بااین‌حال، بسیاری از گونه‌ها با تغییرات کمتر نیز درحال گردش هستند.

نیک لومان، متخصص ژنومیک میکروبی در دانشگاه بیرمنگام می‌گوید «ازآنجا که نظارت بسیار سنگینی بر ژنوم‌ها داریم، می‌توانید تقریبا هر مرحله [از تکامل ویروس] را مشاهده کنید.» اما دانشمندان هرگز شاهد نبوده‌اند که ویروس بیش از چند جهش را به‌طور هم‌زمان کسب کند. آن‌ها تصور می‌کنند این امر درجریان عفونت بلندمدت تک‌بیماری اتفاق افتاده که به ویروس کرونای جدید امکان داده است دوره‌ای طولانی‌مدت از تکامل سریع را با رقابت گونه‌های متعدد برای برتری پشت سر بگذارد.

به‌گفته‌ی اندرو رامبو، زیست‌شناس تکاملی مولکولی در دانشگاه ادینبرو یک دلیل برای نگرانی این است که از بین 17 جهش، 8 مورد در ژنی است که پروتئین اسپایک را روی سطح ویروس تولید می‌کند و دو نمونه‌ از آن‌ها نگران‌کننده است. جهش اول به‌نام N501Y پیش‌تر نشان داده است که اتصال پروتئین به گیرنده‌ی آنزیم 2 مبدل آنژیوتانسین یا نقطه‌ی ورود ویروس به سلول‌های بدن را تقویت می‌کند. جهش دیگر به‌نام 69-70del به ازدست‌رفتن دو آمینو اسید در پروتئین اسپایک منجر می‌شود و در ویروس‌هایی یافت شده است که پاسخ ایمنی را در بیماران مبتلا به نقص ایمنی ازبین می‌برد.

در کنفرانس مطبوعاتی روز شنبه، پاتریک والنس، مشاور ارشد علمی دولت بریتانیا گفت گونه‌ی B.1.1.7 که نخستین‌بار 20 سپتامبر در ویروسی ایزوله‌شده ظاهر شد، مسئول عفونت نزدیک به 26 درصد از موارد در میانه‌ی نوامبر است. او گفت «در هفته‌ی آغاز نهم دسامبر، این ارقام بسیار بالاتر بود. درنتیجه، عامل بیماری بیش از 60 درصد از تمام موارد در لندن، گونه‌ی جدید است.» نخست‌وزیر بریتانیا نیز افزود که جهش‌های فراوان احتمالا انتقال‌پذیری ویروس را تا 70 درصد افزایش داده است.

 


Congress Strikes Long-Sought Stimulus Deal to Provide $900 Billi

Congress Strikes Long-Sought Stimulus Deal to Provide $900 Billion in Aid<\/h1>

Democrats and Republicans said they had an agreement on another round of pandemic aid, including direct payments to Americans, jobless benefits and funds for businesses and vaccine distribution.

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders on Sunday reached a hard-fought agreement on a $900 billion stimulus package that would send immediate aid to Americans and businesses to help them cope with the economic devastation of the pandemic and fund the distribution of vaccines.

The deal would deliver the first significant infusion of federal dollars into the economy since April, as negotiators broke through months of partisan gridlock that had scuttled earlier talks, leaving millions of Americans and businesses without federal help as the pandemic raged. While the plan is roughly half the size of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law enacted in March, it is one of the largest relief packages in modern history.

“We can finally report what our nation has needed to hear for a very long time,” Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, said Sunday night. “More help is on the way.”

It was expected to be merged with a sweeping catchall spending measure that would keep the government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year, creating a $2.3 trillion behemoth whose passage will be Congress’s last substantive legislative achievement before adjourning for the year. The deal came together after a weekend of frenzied negotiating only hours before the government was set to run out of funding and two weeks before the next Congress was to convene on Jan. 3.

Still, even as it prepared to pass a consequential measure, Congress was at the peak of its dysfunction, having left so little time to complete it that lawmakers faced a series of contortions to get it across the finish line. With additional time needed to transform their agreement into legislative text, both chambers had to approve a one-day stopgap spending bill — their third such temporary extension the past 10 days — to avoid a government shutdown while they were finalizing the deal.

 

Both chambers approved the measure on Sunday night, and President Trump signed it shortly before midnight. Final votes on the spending package were expected as early as Monday to approve it and clear it for Mr. Trump’s signature, but had yet to be scheduled.

Although text was not immediately available, the agreement was expected to provide $600 stimulus payments to millions of American adults earning up to $75,000.It would revive lapsed supplemental federal unemployment benefits at $300 a week for 11 weeks — setting both at half the amount provided by the original stimulus law.

It would also continue and expand benefits for gig workers and freelancers, and it would extend federal payments for people whose regular benefits have expired.

The measure would also provide more than $284 billion for businesses and revive the Paycheck Protection Program, a popular federal loan program for small businesses that lapsed over the summer. It would expand eligibility under the program for nonprofits, local newspapers and radio and TV broadcasters and allocate $15 billion for performance venues, independent movie theaters and other cultural institutions devastated by the restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

 

 

 


Biden after Electoral College affirms win: \The rule of law, our

Biden after Electoral College affirms win: "The rule of law, our Constitution and the will of the people prevailed"

 

(CNN)President-elect Joe Biden declared Monday, hours after the Electoral College made his victory over President Donald Trump official, that "the rule of law, our Constitution and the will of the people prevailed" over Trump"s efforts to undo the results of the election.

"The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know nothing, not even a pandemic or an abuse of power, can extinguish that flame," Biden said.

In a speech Monday night in Delaware, Biden launched the most direct and detailed defense of his victory yet -- and the harshest condemnation of Trump"s flailing efforts to change reality.

He catalogued the failures of Trump"s campaign and his allies in state and federal courts and state legislatures, and recounts that have not substantially changed vote tallies. He called efforts by Trump and his supporters to use the courts to overturn the election result "so extreme we"ve never seen it before."

"Thankfully, a unanimous Supreme Court immediately and completely rejected this effort," Biden said.

Biden"s speech came after the Electoral College had cast 306 votes for Biden and 232 for Trump, cementing Biden"s win. The Electoral College votes will now be sent to Congress to be counted formally next month. Though some House Republicans have indicated they will object to the results in key states, they can do little more than delay the process during a joint session of Congress on January 6. Then, Biden will be inaugurated at noon on January 20.

Biden declared it time to "turn the page, to unite, to heal."

"In this battle for the soul of America, democracy prevailed," Biden said. "We the people voted. Faith in our institutions held. The integrity of our elections remains intact. And so, now it is time to turn the page. To unite. To heal." 

But he also unleashed on Trump and Republicans who have attempted to thwart the democratic process in a way he had not before.

Lawsuits from Trump and his allies were rejected resoundingly in state and federal courts. "And yet, none of this could stop baseless claims about the legitimacy of the results," Biden said.

His harshest words were directed at Trump and his Republican allies -- including 17 state attorneys general and 126 members of Congress who backed a baseless Texas lawsuit seeking to undo other states" election results.

"This legal maneuver was an effort by elected officials and one group of states to try to get the Supreme Court to wipe out the votes of more than 20 million Americans in other states and to hand the presidency to a candidate who lost the Electoral College, lost the popular vote and lost each and every one of the states whose votes they were trying to reverse. It"s a position so extreme, we"ve never seen it before," he said.

The President-elect, who paused throughout his remarks several times to either cough or clear his throat, called it "a position that refused to respect the will of the people, refused respect the rule of law and refused to honor our Constitution."

He also condemned attacks by Trump and his supporters, who have sought to throw out legitimately cast ballots, on state and local elections officials.

"It is my sincere hope we never again see anyone subjected to the kinds of threats and abuse we saw in this election. It"s simply unconscionable," Biden said.

He sought to move past Trump"s denials of reality, pointing to record-breaking voter turnout that he said "should be celebrated, not attacked."

The President-elect noted more than 81 million votes being cast in favor of himself and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, the most in history and 7 million more than Trump and Vice President Mike Pence received.

Biden also noted that he won by the same electoral vote count that Trump received in 2016, saying that it was a "clear victory" then and now.

The President-elect also laid out the work that will dominate the early days of his administration: the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, including distributing vaccines and slowing its spread as those vaccines become available, and rebuilding an economy battered by the

 

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/14/politics/joe-biden-speech-electoral-college/index.html

 


Covid-19 Live Updates: Britain Begins Vaccinating Citizens

Covid-19 Live Updates: Britain Begins Vaccinating Citizens

Britain has become the first nation to begin a mass inoculation campaign using a fully tested vaccine, kicking off a global effort to fight Covid-19. Doctors, nurses, certain people aged 80 or over and nursing home workers will be among the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Here’s what you need to know

·        

Pfizer’s vaccine debuts in Britain as the world’s first fully tested vaccine.

 

·        

As Britain begins vaccinations, here are answers to some common questions.

 

·        

The U.S. has recorded its most deaths in a week.

 

·        

The C.D.C.’s call for data on vaccine recipients raises an alarm over privacy.

 

·        

Trump administration officials passed when Pfizer offered months ago to sell the U.S. more vaccine doses.

 

·        

Here’s why vaccinated people still need to wear a mask.

 

Britain’s National Health Service delivered its first shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday, opening a mass vaccination campaign with little precedent in modern medicine and making Britons the first people in the world to receive a clinically authorized, fully tested vaccine.

At 6:31 a.m. Tuesday, Margaret Keenan, 90, a former jewelry shop assistant, rolled up the sleeve of her “Merry Christmas” T-shirt to receive the first shot, and her image quickly became an emblem of the remarkable race to produce a vaccine and the global effort to end a pandemic that has killed 1.5 million people worldwide.

“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against Covid-19,” said Ms. Keenan, who lives in Coventry, in central England. “It means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being on my own for most of the year.”

British regulators leapt ahead of their American counterparts last week to authorize a coronavirus vaccine, upsetting the White House and setting off a spirited debate about whether Britain had moved too hastily, or if the United States was wasting valuable time as the virus was killing about 1,500 Americans a day.

President Trump planned on Tuesday to issue an executive order proclaiming that other nations will not get U.S. supplies of its vaccine until Americans have been inoculated, a directive that appeared to have no real teeth but nevertheless was indicative of the heated race to secure the first shipments of doses.

For the people receiving vaccinations in Britain, among them doctors and nurses who have fortified the country’s ailing National Health Service this year, the shots were an early glimpse at post-pandemic life.

“Today is a great day for medical science, and the future,” Chris Whitty, Britain’s chief medical officer, said on Tuesday.

The first 800,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for Britain were transported in recent days from a manufacturing plant in Belgium to government warehouses in Britain, and then to hospitals.

Fifty hospitals will be administering the shots until the government can refine a plan for delivering them at nursing homes and doctor’s offices. The vaccine must be transported at South Pole-like temperatures before it can be stored for five days in a normal refrigerator, Pfizer has said. First to receive the vaccine will be doctors and nurses, certain people aged 80 and over, and nursing home workers.

Some doctors and nurses have received invitations in recent days to sign up for appointments, with the first shots intended for those at the highest risk of severe illness. The government has indicated that people aged 80 and over who already have visits with doctors scheduled for this week, or who are being discharged from certain hospitals, will also be among the first to receive shots.

Nursing home residents, who were supposed to be the government’s top priority, will be vaccinated in the coming weeks, once health officials start distributing doses beyond hospitals.

Hundreds of people are still dying in Britain each day from the virus, and the country has made allowances for travel over the Christmas period that scientists fear will seed another uptick in infections.

“It is amazing to see the vaccine, but we can’t afford to relax now,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain said on Tuesday morning as he visited a London hospital. Trying to calm a recipient’s nerves about needles, he suggested, “I always try to think of something else — recite some poetry.”

Ms. Keenan, the first vaccine recipient, showed no such nerves. Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, said on Twitter that watching Ms. Keenan receive the shot gave her “a bit of a lump in the throat.”

“Feels like such a milestone moment after a tough year for everyone,” Ms. Sturgeon added.

Administering Ms. Keenan’s shot was May Parsons, a nurse who is originally from the Philippines and has worked for the National Health Service for 24 years.

“The last few months have been tough for all of us working in the N.H.S.,” she said, “but now it feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

— Benjamin Mueller

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2020/12/08/world/covid-19-coronavirus


Trump Has Discussed With Advisers Pardons for His 3 Eldest Child

Trump Has Discussed With Advisers Pardons for His 3 Eldest Children and Giuliani<\/h1>

Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is promoting baseless claims of widespread election fraud, talked about a pardon with President Trump as recently as last week.

 

A pardon for Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer, is certain to prompt accusations that Mr. Trump has used his power to obstruct investigations and insulate himself and his allies. Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

 

President Trump has discussed with advisers whether to grant pre-emptive pardons to his children, to his son-in-law and to his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, and talked with Mr. Giuliani about pardoning him as recently as last week, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Mr. Trump has told others that he is concerned that a Biden Justice Department might seek retribution against the president by targeting the oldest three of his five children — Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump — as well as Ms. Trump’s husband, Jared Kushner, a White House senior adviser.

Donald Trump Jr. had been under investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, for contacts that the younger Mr. Trump had had with Russians offering damaging information on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign, but he was never charged. Mr. Kushner provided false information to federal authorities about his contacts with foreigners for his security clearance, but was given one anyway by the president.

The nature of Mr. Trump’s concern about any potential criminal exposure of Eric Trump or Ivanka Trump is unclear, although an investigation by the Manhattan district attorney into the Trump Organization has expanded to include tax write-offs on millions of dollars in consulting fees by the company, some of which appear to have gone to Ms. Trump.

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/01/us/politics/rudy-giuliani-pardon.html