Is Omicron a serious worry or an evolutionary dead end?

Published

2 years ago

November 26, 2021

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So the new variant has a name, but we’ve no idea about its reputation.

On paper at least the Omicron variant looks terrifying. It has more mutations than any previously observed strain of COVID.

And the mutations aren’t just a random jumble of genetic changes. A worrying number of them are in parts of the virus we know are important for becoming more infectious as well as avoiding antibodies and other parts of the immune system.

Take the receptor-binding domain, a key part of the virus’ spike protein that allows it to grab onto our cells. The Delta variant has two mutations in the RBD, the now rare Beta variant (formerly known as the South Africa variant) has three.

Omicron has 10. If there was a menu of possible mutations suited to the human host, Omicron ordered the full English.

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This is what made scientists sit up and take notice when their colleagues in South Africa first published the sequence of the new variant.

But what caused today’s international response was evidence that a recent and steep spike in cases in south African cases may be due to Omicron. Its powers may not just be theoretical.

But we’re probably weeks away from knowing whether Omicron is a serious worry or another of COVID’s many evolutionary dead-ends.

First, its role in the recent spike in cases in South Africa isn’t confirmed. It certainly makes up the majority of cases in the COVID surge in Gauteng province (the area surrounding Johannesburg and Pretoria), and there’s evidence it’s on the rise elsewhere in South Africa.

But cases are very low in the country – around 70 times lower than the daily average in the UK. Even a small increase in numbers of a new variant can look alarming when numbers are low.

Then there’s the fact the short natural history of COVID-19 has taught us that appearances can be deceptive.

The Beta variant is a case in point. It was effective at evading antibodies from vaccines, it caused a significant wave of infection in South Africa but it never gained a foothold against the more infectious Delta variant.

When Delta spread to South Africa it rapidly displaced Beta.

Having lots of mutations, so the theory goes, could incur costs to the virus in some other part of its biology, making it less fit in a slightly different environment to the one it evolved in.

What scientists in South Africa are doing now is growing the Omicron strain in the laboratory so they can start to test it against antibodies from vaccinated or previously infected people.

They’re also planning to share samples with their colleagues abroad including teams in the UK.

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These experiments should confirm whether Omicron truly is more contagious, or can avoid vaccines and hold its own against the delta strain.

But that will take weeks of work. Until then, eyes will be on South Africa’s outbreak to see whether it provides more answers: is this just a first, but short-lived, flush from a flashy but flawed viral mutant? Or are we witnessing COVID’s next big evolutionary step?

World

Russia using chemical choking agents against Ukrainian troops, US claims

Published

5 hours ago

May 2, 2024

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Russia using chemical choking agents against Ukrainian troops, US claims

Russia has denied allegations of breaching the international chemical weapons ban by deploying chocking agents against Ukrainian troops.

The Kremlin on Thursday responded to claims by the United States that it had used choking agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops – the same agent used by German forces against Allied troops during the First World War.

The United States also accused Russia of using riot control agents “as a method of warfare” in Ukraine, which according to Ukrainian military cited by Reuters earlier this month, is being increasingly used in the country.

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Grenades containing CS and CN gases have also reportedly been used on the frontline, forcing troops stuck in trenches to either flee under enemy fire or risk suffocating.

At least 500 Ukrainian troops have been treated for exposure to a toxic substance, the military said, with one dying as a result of suffocating on tear gas.

The US State Department believes Russia has been violating international rules on chemical weapons under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow remained bound by its obligations under the treaty.

“The use of such chemicals is not an isolated incident and is probably driven by Russian forces’ desire to dislodge Ukrainian forces from fortified positions and achieve tactical gains on the battlefield,” the US State Department said in a statement.

Chloropicrin is listed as a banned choking agent by the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which was created to implement and monitor compliance with the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

According to the US, Moscow’s use of the gas “comes from the same playbook as its operations to poison” the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny in 2020 and Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018 with the Novichok nerve agent.

Russia denied involvement in both cases.

World

Ex-politician seen beating his wife to death in CCTV footage – sparking outrage in Kazakhstan

Published

23 hours ago

May 1, 2024

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Ex-politician seen beating his wife to death in CCTV footage - sparking outrage in Kazakhstan

The murder trial of a former senior politician in Kazakhstan who has been accused of beating his wife to death has attracted the attention of the nation, sparking calls for new legislation tackling domestic violence.

Shocking footage showing businessman Kuandyk Bishimbayev, Kazakhstan’s former economy minister, beating his wife at a family restaurant has been streamed online from the court.

The case has touched a nerve among the public as tens of thousands of people have signed petitions calling for new laws to hold those guilty of abuse to account.

Why is the case so high profile?

The trial of Bishimbayev, 44, is the first in the country to ever be streamed online – making it readily accessible to the 19 million people in Kazakhstan.

The former politician was already well known, having been jailed for bribery in 2018. He spent less than two years of his 10-year sentence in prison before he was pardoned.

Bishimbayev was charged with torturing and killing his wife after her death last November. For weeks, he maintained his innocence but admitted last month in court that he had beaten her and “unintentionally” caused her death.

Saltanat Nukenova, 31, was found dead in November in a restaurant owned by one of her husband’s relatives.

Disturbing CCTV footage shows the defendant, a father of four, dragging his wife by her hair, and then punching and kicking her.

Hours after it was recorded, she died of brain trauma.

Bishimbayev’s lawyers initially disputed medical evidence indicating Ms Nukenova died from repeated blows to the head.

They also portrayed her as prone to jealousy and violence, although no video from the restaurant’s security cameras that was played in court has shown her attacking Bishimbayev.

According to a 2018 study backed by UN Women, about 400 women die as a result of domestic violence in Kazakhstan every year, although many go unreported.

What reaction has the trial caused?

Tens of thousands of people in the country have signed a petition calling for harsher measures against perpetrators of domestic violence in the wake of Ms Nukenova’s tragic death.

The signatures resulted in senators approving a bill which toughens spousal abuse laws last month – dubbed “Saltanat’s Law”.

Aitbek Amangeldy, Ms Nukenova’s brother and a key prosecution witness, told the Associated Press he had no doubt his sister’s tragic fate has shifted attitudes about domestic violence.

“It changes people’s minds when they see directly what it looks like when a person is tortured.”

World

NYPD raid Columbia University campus to break up pro-Palestinian protest

Published

1 day ago

May 1, 2024

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NYPD raid Columbia University campus to break up pro-Palestinian protest

Police in riot gear have raided Columbia University and arrested pro-Palestinian protesters occupying one of its buildings.

Around 30 to 40 people have been removed from the Manhattan university’s Hamilton Hall, according to police.

The raid came hours after New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the demonstration at the Ivy League school “must end now”.

He also claimed the demonstration had been infiltrated by “professional outside agitators”.

University bosses said they called in the New York Police Department (NYPD) after protesters “chose to escalate the situation through their actions”.

“After the university learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalised, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” a university spokesman said in a statement.

“The decision to reach out to the NYPD was in response to the actions of the protesters, not the cause they are championing.

“We have made it clear that the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law.”

The protest began when students barricaded the entrance of Hamilton Hall at Columbia’s campus on Tuesday and unfurled a Palestinian flag out of a window.

Video footage showed protesters locking arms in front of the hall and carrying furniture and metal barricades to the building.

Those behind the protest said they had renamed the building “Hind’s Hall” in honour of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl killed in a strike on Gaza in February.

Demonstrators said they had planned to remain at the hall until the university conceded to the Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s (CUAD) three demands: divestment, financial transparency and amnesty.

“Columbia will be proud of these students in five years,” said Sweda Polat, one of the student negotiators for CUAD.

She said students did not pose a danger and called on police to back down.

Officers raided the campus on Tuesday night after university bosses wrote to New York City officials and the NYPD formally asking for assistance.

A large group of officers dressed in riot gear entered the campus late on Tuesday evening. Officers were also seen entering the window of a university building via a police-branded ladder vehicle, nicknamed “the bear”.

Earlier, Mayor Adams urged demonstrators to leave the site. “Walk away from this situation now and continue your advocacy through other means,” he said.

Columbia University also threatened academic expulsions for students involved in the demonstration.

Protests at Columbia earlier this month kicked off demonstrations which have spread to university campuses from California to Massachusetts.

Dozens of people were arrested on Monday during protests at universities in Texas, Utah, Virginia, and New Jersey.

Police moved to clear an encampment at Yale University in Connecticut on Tuesday morning, but there were no immediate reports of arrests.

Meanwhile, the president of the University of South California issued a statement on Tuesday after a swastika was drawn on the campus.

“I condemn any antisemitic symbols or any form of hate speech against anyone,” Carol Folt said.

“Clearly it was drawn there just to incite even more anger at a time that is so painful for our community. We’re going to work to get to the bottom of this immediately, and it has just been removed.”

Earlier, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said President Joe Biden believed students occupying buildings was “absolutely the wrong approach” and “not an example of peaceful protest”.