En artikkel som setter den nyvunne angsten for B-117 (altså den britiske mutasjonen) noe klarere og gir også mer mening til den norske responsen i disse dager.
UK-Variant SARS-CoV-2 Update | Epsilon Theory
Consequence #1: if B117 is the dominant US strain, vaccination will need to reach 80%+ Americans for effective control of the Covid pandemic. That’s at least 10% higher than current vaccination policy contemplates, meaning that not only will 35 million additional doses need to be sourced, distributed and administered, but also the finish line in this race for herd immunity between an exponential process (B117 spread) and a linear process (vaccine delivery) just got pushed back. That’s bad news for the linear process.
Consequence #2: if B117 is the dominant US strain by the end of February, the daily number of new Covid cases by the end of February will be significantly higher than today. This is the point that was completely missed in the WSJ article. B117 doesn’t become the dominant strain because it “defeats” the baseline strain. This isn’t a football game. B117 becomes the dominant strain by spreading
even faster than the current fast-spreading baseline virus. The math here is as inexorable as it is sobering, and it means that
the rollover in Covid cases and hospitalizations we are currently seeing is a temporary reprieve in advance of an even tougher battle.