DOUBLING-DOWN ON THE MUTANT LIE: Why India’s Double-Mutant Variant (Delta) is not Causing their “Second Wave”
PANDEMIC WRITINGS, Melbourne, Australia (2020-2022): piece originally published May 12, 2021
WHO has recently designated India’s B.1.617 “double-mutant” as ‘a variant of global concern.’ They claim that ‘there is evidence now to suggest that the strain is more infectious than others.’ The naïve inference is that India’s purported “second wave” is essentially the result of this more infectious strain. The media and WHO are doing their best to conflate the two: a ‘double-mutant’ and a “second wave” — surely a sequel to the “first wave” that is twice the terror, twice the infectivity and twice the mortality. Double the mutant!
However, this understanding is demonstrably false.
On the 25th of March, the BBC published an illuminating article titled: ‘Double mutant’: What are the risks of India’s new Covid-19 variant.’1 In a subsection discussing the reason behind India’s "second wave," Dr Rakesh Mishra, director of the Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) offered the following professional insight:
‘ "One suspicion is that this variant is the cause of India's second wave of infections. I would say no, 80% of the samples we have sequenced don't have this combination of mutants. This mutant has been linked to only 230 cases in Maharashtra of the several thousand samples sequenced," he said.
“Much more worrying is the UK or the Kent variant (also known as B.1.1.7, Alpha variant), which is now dominant in much of Britain and has spread to more than 50 countries. A total of 736 of the 10,787 samples sequenced in India have been found positive for this variant.
This variant is more likely to contribute to an "intense second wave," Dr Kamil says. (According to studies, it is over 50% more transmissible and 60% more lethal — 1.6 deaths for every one death caused by the previous version of the virus.)’
It seems that Dr Kamil has a differing opinion on which variant is the most infectious.
He really does not rate the purported homegrown ‘double-mutant,’ and is more concerned with the UK mutant, or Kent variant.
Even the UK mutant has been largely overrated. The BBC journalist’s manipulative inclusion of ‘according to studies...it is over 50% more transmissible and 60% more lethal’ cannot be substantiated. There are no such credible studies — just hyperbole. Despite claims that the UK mutant variant is more infectious, it has thus far proven to be anything other than, and it is certainly not more lethal.
The truly peculiar thing about the ‘UK or the Kent variant,’ is that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was packaged and distributed in Kent, and the very same vaccine that 100 plus million Indians have been vaccinated with — just happens to be the AstraZeneca vaccine.
What are the odds?
Furthermore, what are the odds that the actual strain responsible for India’s “second wave” just happened to emerge precisely during the period India was rushing to achieve their record 100 million administered vaccines in 85 days… the virus was all but gone before the National Vaccination Campaign commenced…
What are the odds, indeed?
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