Get ready for the tyrants to unleash their fury!
Again.
Within the United States, they’ve detected the variant of COVID-19 that has caused a chaotic mess and ramped up restrictions in the United Kingdom.
Today we discovered Colorado’s first case of the COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7, the same variant discovered in the UK.
The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority and we will monitor this case, as well as all COVID-19 indicators, very closely. pic.twitter.com/fjyq7QhzBi
— Governor Jared Polis (@GovofCO) December 29, 2020
BREAKING: A variant of COVID-19 first discovered in the UK has been found in Colorado, according to reports. https://t.co/CDjgoTuIJa
— WSOCTV (@wsoctv) December 29, 2020
BREAKING: The first reported U.S. case of the COVID-19 variant that's been seen in the United Kingdom has been discovered in Colorado, the governor says. https://t.co/qZwtDBWyb3
— The Associated Press (@AP) December 29, 2020
JUST IN: The first known US case of a variant coronavirus strain — recently identified in the UK — has been found in Colorado, Governor Jared Polis announced on Tuesday. https://t.co/dBxVH4NLPo
— NewsWatch 12 (@KDRV) December 29, 2020
The patient in question is a young man in his 20s who lives in tiny Elbert County, on the outskirts of Denver.
He has no travel history.
Since the strain was discovered in a rural inland county and in a person with no travel history, it appears the strain has likely been in America for a while.
Colorado reports finding the UK variant #SARSCoV2 virus in a resident who did not travel. In other words, someone who did not bring the case to this country. So, there's more. https://t.co/7dWo4yBa6l
— Helen Branswell 🇺🇦 (@HelenBranswell) December 29, 2020
It was only a matter of time. Epidemiologists believe it is likely that the more contagious UK #COVID19 variant is in several states but Colorado is the first to confirm a case #CovidVaccine pic.twitter.com/0J7dMZIEDn
— Gerald Posner (@geraldposner) December 29, 2020
Should this be a cause for panic?
Not really.
It may be more transmissible, but it’s no more dangerous.
The same therapeutics and vaccines are believed to be equally as effective against this variant.
The néw COVID-19 variant that came out of the United Kingdom has now been found in Colorado.
I’m not panicked. This strain is more contagious but less severe.
There is no cause for panic. The same therapeutics and vaccines can treat this strain as well.
Stay calm.
— Dr. David Samadi (@drdavidsamadi) December 29, 2020
Still, you can bet that tyrannical governors and mayors will use the new variant as an excuse to tighten their grips against American citizens.
They’ll certainly use it to enforce more draconian lockdowns, mask mandates, and strip the American people of their civil liberties.
That’s why it is more important than ever to stand up to these authoritarians.
If we don’t, they’ll take full advantage of every “emergency” at their disposal.
The mainstream media is already ramping up the fear campaigns to scare the public.
From the Associated Press:
“There is a lot we don’t know about this new COVID-19 variant, but scientists in the United Kingdom are warning the world that it is significantly more contagious. The health and safety of Coloradans is our top priority, and we will closely monitor this case, as well as all COVID-19 indicators, very closely,” Polis said.
Polis and state health officials are expected hold a news conference Wednesday.
The discovery of the new variant led the CDC to issue new rules on Christmas Day for travelers arriving to the U.S. from the U.K., requiring they show proof of a negative COVID-19 test.
Worry has been growing about the variant since the weekend before Christmas, when Britain’s prime minister said a new strain of the coronavirus seemed to spread more easily than earlier ones and was moving rapidly through England. The nation’s first variant case was identified in southeast England.
Dozens of countries barred flights from the U.K., and southern England was placed under strict lockdown measures. Scientists say there is reason for concern but the new strains should not cause alarm.
Japan announced Monday it would bar entry of all nonresident foreign nationals as a precaution against the new strain.
New variants of the coronavirus have been seen almost since the virus was first detected in China nearly a year ago. It is common for viruses to undergo minor changes as they reproduce and move through a population. The slight modifications are how scientists track the spread of a virus from one place to another.
But if the virus has significant mutations, one concern is that current vaccines might no longer offer the same protections. Although that’s a possibility to watch for over time with the coronavirus, experts say they don’t believe it will be the case with the latest variant.
The U.K. variant, known as B.1.1.7, has also been found in Canada, Italy, India and the United Arab Emirates.
And from the Washington Post:
The Colorado case involves a man in his 20s, who is in isolation in Elbert County, about 50 miles southeast of Denver, and has no travel history, according to a tweet from the office of Gov. Jared Polis (D).
“The individual has no close contacts identified so far but public health officials are working to identify other potential cases and contacts through thorough contact tracing interviews,” the statement said.
A federal scientist familiar with the investigation said the man’s lack of known travel — in contrast with most confirmed cases outside the United Kingdom — indicates this is probably not an isolated case. “We can expect that it will be detected elsewhere,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the broader context of the announcement.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed as much in a statement Tuesday afternoon, saying additional cases with the new variant will be detected in the United States in coming days. The variant’s apparent increase in contagiousness “could lead to more cases and place greater demand on already strained health care resources,” the agency said in a statement.
Researchers have detected the more transmissible variant in at least 17 countries outside the United Kingdom, including as far away as Australia and South Korea, as of Tuesday afternoon. Officials in Canada had previously said they had identified two cases.
Although the U.K. variant appears more contagious, it is not leading to higher rates of hospitalizations or deaths, according to a report from Public Health England, a government agency. Nor is there any sign that people who were infected months ago with the coronavirus are more likely to be reinfected if exposed to the variant, according to the report. All available evidence indicates that vaccines, and immunity built up in the population, should be protective against this variant.
The Colorado case occurred in a county of about 27,000, which is currently classified, along with much of the state, in the “red” level for the virus, denoting serious but not extreme risk.
Two weeks ago, several hundred people gathered at a community church in the county seat of Kiowa to consider whether to pursue legal actions against Polis and other state officials for imposing coronavirus-related restrictions, according to the Elbert County News. County commissioners and the county sheriff have declined to enforce restrictions emanating from Denver.
“I was expecting to see it in ski country first because those areas are where people from across Colorado, the U.S. and internationally, gather,” said Elizabeth Carlton, an assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at the Colorado School of Public Health. The absence of any apparent travel history associated with the infected person, she said, suggests he “can’t be the only case in Colorado.”
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