On Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the first case of the quick spreading COVID-19 variant in California has been reported in San Diego.
The variant, known as B.1.1.7, was first reported in the United Kingdom last week. Despite mandatory COVID-19 testing being required for air travel between the US and UK by the CDC last week, the variant strain managed to spread. Earlier this week, the first US case was reported in Colorado, being found in a member of the Colorado National Guard.
The San Diego case was the second in the U.S.; the first was in of Colorado.
Governor Newsom’s announcement of the first California case came during a press conference with the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Anthony Fauci. After Newsom told Fauci the news, Fauci responded that it didn’t really come as a surprise due to the high rates being reported and the continuation of travel during the holiday season.
“I don’t think Californians should feel this is something odd,” said Dr. Fauci on Wednesday. “This is something to be expected.
“We’ve been hit badly, and unfortunately California has been hit right now, currently, as bad as anyone, if not worse.”
“To all of my Californian friends, and I have many, they should realize that this is an RNA virus. In other words, the makeup of it is RNA. RNA viruses, they make a living out of mutating. They love to mutate. The more you replicate, the more you mutate, so when you’re a virus that’s circulating in the community, it means it’s infecting a lot of people, it’s replicating a lot, and when you replicate, you mutate. The overwhelming majority of mutations are irrelevant. They don’t have any impact on any important function of the virus. Every once in a while, you get a mutation that does impact a function of the virus. It appears, from what we’ve learned from the UK and what we’ll prove here, is that this particular mutation does, in fact, make the virus better at transmitting from one person to another.”
Heightened concern over the new COVID variant
After the conference, San Diego Supervisor Nathan Fletcher gave more details about the California case, confirming that it was a 30-year-old man in San Diego who did not have a travel history. Fletcher also warned that the man was likely not the only one with it.
“We believe this is not an isolated case,” noted Fletcher.
Health professionals, already fatigued by the number of cases and facing ICU bed shortages, have said that a new strain that could increase the number of cases would only make the situation in California worse.
“We cannot handle anymore,” nurse Sarah McGuire told the Globe. “My hospital has had to turn people away we’ve had so many COVID cases. And we’re facing a shortage of people here now too because some have just up and quit. It’s actually a big problem now of nurses and doctors quitting and going to less stressful work.
“The UK is already seeing a large rise in cases due to this new strain. Needless to say, we’re very worried about this. We’ve been running at 120% since March. We don’t know how much more we can take.”
More new cases of the UK variant are expected to be reported in California in the coming days.
View Comments (18)
Gee a faster spreading virus, how convenient.
Just in time for an experimental vaccine nobody wants.
Evolution favors viruses that are more contagious and less lethal. We are beating COVID despite the best efforts of our politicians and so-called "public health" officials.
Maybe if we hadn't banned known treatments, put infected people into nursing homes, prematurely forced mechanical ventilation, abandoned dementia patients, invented nonsense myths about masks as magical talismans, endorsed mass protests and riots for Democrats while boasting about denying treatment to those who questioned all the hypocrisy and policy that contradicted all known evidence, while dancing on TikTok and shouting "Believe in Sciene" as if science were a brutal god that lived off of unquestioning obedience-- NO. The entire health industry has lost all its legitimacy to me. You are all compromised. You are all complicit. You are all garbage.
What a disappointment California is usually first in everything our village idiot aka Newsome is slipping he’s probably out practicing his jump shot with the new square basketball he got for Christmas
Newsom will keep the state locked down until he dies of old age unless we force him out. He is teaming up with Fauci. Fauci provides the fake "science" and Newsom provides the fascism.
Newsom has a three year contract with his testing facility in Santa Clarita, he has no
plans of ever opening up the state. He opened this facility at a cost of 1.3 million to the
taxpayer. He then signed a three year contract for testing. he has never had any intention of opening
anything back up. He is a Con of the highest level. He's not following anything but the money!
Well, isn’t that convenient to keep the state locked down another year and everyone scurrying around in masks. Fauci hasn’t been correct about anything yet the media still gives this little lab rat continuous air time. Newsom can use this alleged new strain to completely destroy what’s left of small business and property owners. All that will be left is leftist tech, unions and illegals who will gladly “work for the man” for their monthly handouts.
Stop full stop. At this point I know over 100 people that have tested positive for covid....And not a single ONE has had symptoms....I don't know if there is such a thing as covid, the test is false positive a kiwi and coke tested positive. Open up California it is against YOUR constitutional rights to force anyone to wear a mask, close your business, or force you to take a vaccine...If we all stood together we could end this China propaganda in a week.
As Katy Grimes stated, where is the "regular" seasonal flu that ALWAYS has many different strains, that has always increased and strained ICU capacity this time of year. A virus wouldn't be a virus if it didn't mutate! Every flu season there are many strains that flu vaccines do not cover. SIGN THE PETITION TO RECALL GAVIN NEWSOM! It is so easy to download your own petition to sign and mail in. They are lumping seasonal flu in with COVID. Don't you ask yourself why they aren't talking about how seasonal flu is also impacting hospitals? Ask yourself why it isn't even addressed on the news like every year in the past. Ask yourself why there are no statistics about seasonal flu this year. Stop the governing by instilling fear and gather signatures to RECALL the VILLAGE IDIOT.
Spot on Stacy! Nathan Fletcher the San Diego County Supervisor did not say anything about regular seasonal flu in his county which as of last week had only 36 cases (thirty six) so far this flu season. In a normal year that county averages 17,000 cases of seasonal flu. Gruesome Newsom and the democraps are using this Covid BS for FEAR AND CONTROL. If they can keep people scared they can control them! http://www.recallgavin2020.com
Genevieve Briand is an economist at Johns Hopkins. Unlike Epidemiologists, Economists and Survey Researchers use statistics with far more critical thought. She found that overall deaths decreased in proportion to Corona deaths - in other words, statistically speaking all corona deaths are those people who would die anyway from nonspecific pneumonia. Without satisfaction of Koch's postulates, there is no evidence of Corona pathogenesis. It's really important to note that JHU flagged Briand's article for review - but why is this? We need to call a spade a spade: Corona is an intelligence operation. It's an intentional deception - and the media are complicit. JHU probably overlooked this economist in their control grid and then did damage control.
https://web.archive.org/web/20201126223119/https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
We've known that Corona is a mirage thanks to the leaked German Government report from May:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/05/29/german-official-leaks-report-denouncing-corona-as-global-false-alarm/
Comrades
Relax it’s Biden’s fault in a fortnight......or something.....
You should change your handle to QUITTER...
Comrade....
Great Idea Comrade Expat.....