Coronavirus is spreading 'uncontrolled' in Brazil, giving rise to a more infectious, vaccine-dulling variant known as P1 which has spread to at least 20 countries (pink). So long as the outbreak roars on in the South America, the rest of the world could still be vulnerable to new mutants, experts warn
* Brazil's P1 variant is now dominant there, has caused a second wave even worse than the hard-hit country's first and has put the health care system on the brink
* The variant is thought to be 1.4 to 2.2 times more transmissible than older variants and has reinfected people who already had COVID-19 in Brazil
* Control measures and vaccinations are shoddy in Brazil, where 2,000 people died of COVID-19 yesterday
* Experts compare the out-of-control situation in Brazil to 'an atomic bomb'
* As long Brazil or other countries have uncontrolled spread, variants could keep emerging and triggering new Covid waves around the world
Scientists are warning that Brazil's uncontrolled coronavirus outbreak could threaten the global fight to end the pandemic.
The more infectious, vaccine-dulling P1 variant that emerged there has already become dominant in the majority of the country's states, and there's no sign of it slowing down.
'This information is an atomic bomb' Dr Roberto Kraenkel, a biological mathematician with the Covid-19 Brazil Observatory, told the Washington Post.
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Update: Brazil Is Becoming A Hotbed For COVID-19 Supervariants, Experts Warn (IFL Science) WNU Editor: There is some positive news. It look's like the Pfizer vaccine is effective on the Brazilian P1 variant .... Pfizer-BioNTech Covid Vaccine Can Protect Against Brazil Variant: Study (NDTV).
The bad news is that South Africa's variant is far more resistant to existing COVID vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna than initially believed .... This is the worst news we’ve seen about coronavirus vaccines and the South African variant (BGR).
