Prime example of bad information, sensationalism, etc.

Sep 22, 2021, 9:35 AM

......today's breaking news story......

A new variant has recently been discovered. It's called R.1. It originated in Japan. It infected a bunch of people in a Kentucky nursing home, including many who were fully vaccinated. Here's the tabloid "news" story from today:

https://www.the-sun.com/news/3707195/new-covid-variant-kentucky-nursing-home-mutations-virus-antibodies/

Covid variant in nursing home has deadly mutations that may evade antibodies

A NEW variant of COVID-19 with deadly mutations that give it “increased resistance to antibodies” was discovered in a Kentucky nursing home. The variant, called R.1, infected 45 residen…

So, naturally I investigate (read the study). Come to find out, several things are interesting about this. First, the study from the nursing home in KY, which identified this new variant, was from an outbreak at the nursing home on MARCH FIRST. This was before the Delta variant was dominant in the US, and was even before the delta variant was even bad in India. It was published online in APRIL. And today it's breaking news? So how has this R.1 variant fared for the past 6 months in the US? Well, it never peaked above 1% in any state, and only hit 1% in 4 states. Only 1 case in the past 60 days recorded in the US, in Montana. ANYWAY....back to the study.

Nursing home had 90% of residents and 52% of staff vaccinated fully, back on MARCH 1. They had 46 total covid cases in the outbreak, 18 among fully vaccinated residents. VE among residents was 86% among residents and 87% among staff. And lastly, 4 possible REINFECTIONS were recorded. One in a patient who had a positive test and symptoms 300 days earlier, and had NINE negative PCR tests since. And that reinfection case died. And one reinfection was among a staff member who was also vaccinated.

Herre is the study fwiw at this point in time:
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7017e2.htm

COVID-19 Outbreak Associated with a SARS-CoV-2 R.1 Lineage...

In a COVID-19 outbreak at a Kentucky skilled nursing facility involving a newly introduced variant to the region, unvaccinated residents and health care personnel (HCP) had 3.0 and 4.1 times the risk of infection as did vaccinated residents and HCP. Vaccine was 86.5% protective against symptomatic illness among residents and 87.1% protective among HCP.

But why is this news today? Why the "new" variant? It's not new. It's been here for 6 months and has done nothing. WHAT IS interesting to me is how long ago all this was. It was before Delta had destroyed India, much less showed up in the US. It showed the vaccines had less effectiveness than thought, and vaccinated people could spread it, although less so. This was also before the CDC said vaccinated people could lose the masks. They made that change knowing this study data? Interesting.

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Prime example of bad information, sensationalism, etc.

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