Long Bets is a philanthropic website built with funds from Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos. Anyone can post a prediction and a challenge the winner donates the money to charity. Lord Rees, the prominent British astronomer, placed a bet in 2017 that “bioterror or bioerror will lead to one million casualties in a single event within a six-month period starting no later than December 31, 2020.” His friend and Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker took up the wager and lost. All bets are off as the pandemic cuts widening fatal swathe in India because of no trials and many errors.
In a podcast, Niall Ferguson, the author of
Several experts have suggest that the double mutant variant accelerated India s second Covid wave.
NEW DELHI: Many variants of the Covid-19 virus are in circulation in India and other parts of the world.
Viruses mutate all the time as part of the evolutionary biology. Since its outbreak last year, Covid-19 virus too has undergone several changes in its genetic code. While some mutations have weakened it, others have made it stronger, i.e., more infectious.
Experts have said that the massive surge in cases during India s second wave was triggered predominantly by the double-mutant variant found in the country. This variant has now surfaced in other parts of the world as well.
Explained: What Is N440K Covid Variant? Is It More Virulent? Know What CCMB Says
This new variant of SARS-CoV-2 is the reason behind the havoc caused in Visakhapatnam, Karnataka, Telangana, and other southern parts. This virus was also found in parts of Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
Outlook Web Bureau 10 May 2021, Last Updated at 7:25 am Representational image Outlook Web Bureau 2021-05-10T07:22:56+05:30 Explained: What Is N440K Covid Variant? Is It More Virulent? Know What CCMB Says outlookindia.com 2021-05-10T07:25:30+05:30
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As the country is witnessing a rise in Covid cases, a new variant, ‘N440K’ is creating a buzz – It is spreading a lot more in the southern states especially Andhra Pradesh as compared to the other Covid variants.
CCMB Chief Says No Unique Andhra Strain Which Is 15 Times More Virulent â Hereâs All You Need To Know About COVID-19 Strains
by Swarajya Staff - May 5, 2021 01:45 PM
Covid-19
Snapshot
The SARS-CoV-2 virus is evolving fast because of it has infected people around the world â high levels of circulation mean higher replication, and more replication means more chances of genetic mutations
The Director of Hyderabad-based Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Rakesh Mishra, today debunked reports of a unique or a novel âAndhraâ strain,
Mishra said that the prevalence of the variant called the âN440K strainâ in Andhra Pradesh is less than 5 per cent at the moment and is likely to disappear or be replaced soon by other existing variants, adding that there is no evidence that the N440K variant is deadly or more infectious than other COVID-19 variants.