Covid-19 The Unwanted Gift That Keeps On Giving

This Build-shop is a Brave Space to discuss navigating this pandemic from a grassroots lens. This virus is evolving, adapting and learning how to make us a host against our will. Basically, it’s like a biological rape and because we have been loafing on myriad aspects of health, most of our immune systems are about 10 years behind these viruses. One scary thought is that if our immune systems don’t become strong enough to fight off these viruses, as they evolve we will be forever dependent upon vaccines to protect us from now until the end of time. Even though they report that there is no evidence that these new variants are more deadly, we know that they are evolving/mutating and are becoming better able to enter our bodies and make us a home. We are also going to have to come to some kind of consensus regarding the vaccines. Right now it’s like the elephant in the living room. The African American community has been experimented on and lied to for so long that there is a huge trust-gap that is not being addressed.

The CDC put out a list of the COVID-19 variants that have showed up globally:

• In the United Kingdom (UK), a new variant called B.1.1.7 has emerged with an unusually large number of mutations. This variant spreads more easily and quickly than other variants. Currently, there is no evidence that it causes more severe illness or increased risk of death. This variant was first detected in September 2020 and is now highly prevalent in London and southeast England. It has since been detected in numerous countries around the world, including the United States and Canada.
• In South Africa, another variant called 1.351 has emerged independently of the variant detected in the UK. This variant, originally detected in early October, shares some mutations with the variant detected in the UK. There have been cases caused by this variant outside of South Africa, but it has not been detected in the US.
• In Brazil, a variant called P.1 emerged and was identified in four travelers from Brazil, who were tested during routine screening at Haneda airport outside Tokyo, Japan. This variant contains a set of additional mutations that may affect its ability to be recognized by antibodies. This variant has not been detected in the US.

Scientists are studying these variants to find out similarities and differences among them and just what that is going to mean for us. There is so much that is unknown right now, we better take this seriously. In America, we are almost at 400,000 deaths. That’s more that WWII.