A person in California who had been vaccinated against COVID-19 became the first in the U.S. to have an identified case of the omicron variant, the White House announced Wednesday as scientists continue to study the risks posed by the new virus strain.
Dr. Anthony Fauci told reporters that the person was a traveler who returned from South Africa on Nov. 22 and tested positive on Nov. 29. Fauci said the person was vaccinated but had not received a booster shot and was experiencing “mild symptoms.”
The Biden administration moved late last month to restrict travel from Southern Africa where the variant was first identified and had been widespread. Clusters of cases have also been identified in about two dozen other nations.
“We knew that it was just a matter of time before the first case of omicron would be detected in the United States,” Fauci said.
Officials said they had contacted everyone who had close contact with the person and they had all tested negative.
Genomic sequencing was conducted at the University of California, San Francisco and the sequence was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is taking steps to tighten U.S. testing rules for travelers from overseas, including requiring a test for all travelers within a day of boarding a flight to the U.S. regardless of vaccination status. It was also considering mandating post-arrival testing.
Officials said those measures would only “buy time” for the country to learn more about the new variant and to take appropriate precautions, but that given its transmissibility its arrival in the U.S. was inevitable.
Much remains unknown about the new variant, including whether it is more contagious than previous strains, whether it makes people more seriously ill, and whether it can thwart the vaccine. Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said more would be known about the omicron strain in two to four weeks as scientists grow and test lab samples of the virus.
The announcement of the first U.S. case comes before President Joe Biden plans to outline his strategy on Thursday to combat the virus over the winter. Biden has tried to quell alarm over the omicron variant, saying it was a cause for concern but “not a cause for panic.”
Biden and public health officials have grown more urgent in their pleas for more Americans to get vaccinated — and for those who have been vaccinated to get booster shots to maximize their protection against the virus.
(AP News)
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12 Responses
Thank you all the anti vaxxers this mutation is a direct outcome of your actions
@Ng76b3c actually it’s because only the wealthy countries in the world have been able to vaccinate their citizens, but 95% of Africa hasn’t been vaccinated and it’s due to the lack of supply and infrastructure. It was predicted that poorer countries will have higher case loads which makes it more likely for mutations to occur. They were right.
Ng76b3c,
Vaccines cause mutations.
The following from npr.org:
https://www.npr.org/2021/02/09/965703047/vaccines-could-drive-the-evolution-of-more-covid-19-mutants
“You may have heard that bacteria can develop resistance to antibiotics and, in a worst-case scenario, render the drugs useless. Something similar can also happen with vaccines… They might serve as sort of a breeding ground for the virus to acquire new mutations.”
Ng76b3c! than why did a guy that vaxcinated get it
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Oy vey! As soon as medical experts deem it worthwhile to stop indoor gatherings such as minyanim and Yeshivos like coumos Smart policies, they should do necessary. If they think this time around it won’t save any lives then they shouldn’t.
Sorry for mistake. Will repost correctly
Oy vey! As soon as medical experts deem it worthwhile to stop indoor gatherings such as minyanim and Yeshivos like coumos Smart policies, they should do necessary. If they think this time around it won’t save any lives then they shouldn’t.
There is one way to get rid of the variants…plug your ears in.
There is one way to get rid of the variants…ear plugs
TYW12345678, you are misunderstanding the quote you provided. It’s like this: if a doctor gives someone antibiotics for strep and they take all the antibiotics as prescribed, the infection will be wiped out. However, if they stop taking the antibiotics halfway through because they start feeling better, the remaining bacteria that have not yet been killed by the antibiotic can then develop resistance to that antibiotic. Here’s a metaphor: if someone uses a new weapon against an army but leaves survivors, those survivors can develop defenses to that weapon.
Likewise, if the enough of the population takes a vaccine and therefore wipes out an illness, the disease can be eradicated (as happened with polio and smallpox). However, if enough of the population refuses the vaccine, then the disease does not get wiped out, and it has the opportunity to mutate into strains resistant to that vaccine.
So it’s not that the vaccine caused the mutation; rather, large-scale refusal to take the vaccine (or lack of access in many countries) made the chance of mutation possible.
TYW12345678 and Woodman516 got it right. The rest of you must have flunked science in school.
The actual pandemic is the resistance of the natural immunity to fight the virus where the synthetic vaccines were administered. And the more mutations that develop, the more the vaccine has failed.
To “comments”…
Sorry to burst your bubble, but this experimental gene therapy product does not protect against covid infection or transmission. This is not about “herd immunity” as you imply, since the injection does nothing to prevent transmission.
We’re told it only protects against severe covid disease, that’s it. And yet we’re seeing skyrocketing mortality rates in the countries most “vaccinated” – deaths primarily due to heart attack, stroke, and inflammatory diseases (including myo- and pericarditis, cancer, and even prion diseases).
It’s impossible to eradicate coronaviruses, which have animal reservoirs. Smallpox did not have animal reservoirs. We’ve never had a successful “vaccine” against any coronavirus, and never will. Our G-d given immunity and early treatment is all that is required, just as with every other coronavirus.
Most importantly, nobody knows the long-term side effects of this experimental injection – not even your doctor. One thing we DO KNOW is that the U.S. Government’s Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) yesterday (11/29/21) reported a total of 1,765,262 cases of adverse events following all vaccines for the past 30+ years, including the experimental COVID-19 shots that have been issued emergency use authorization and are not yet approved by the FDA. Of those 1,765,262 cases of adverse events following all vaccines for the past 30+ years, 913,268 of them (52%) have been reported during the past 11 months alone, following COVID-19 shots.
For the past 30+ years there have been 28,379 deaths recorded in VAERS following all vaccines, including the COVID-19 EUA shots. 68% of those deaths, 19,249, have followed COVID-19 shots in the past 11 months. For the past 30+ years there have been 35,524 life threatening events recorded in VAERS following all vaccines, including the COVID-19 EUA shots. 61% of those life threatening events, 21,582, have followed COVID-19 shots in the past 11 months. For the past 30+ years there have been 51,231 permanent disabilities recorded in VAERS following all vaccines, including the COVID-19 EUA shots. 60% of those permanent disabilities, 30,967, have followed COVID-19 shots in the past 11 months. For the past 30+ years there have been 178,383 hospitalizations recorded in VAERS following all vaccines, including the COVID-19 EUA shots. 55% of those hospitalizations, 97,561, have followed COVID-19 shots in the past 11 months.
From the data released into VAERS yesterday, there were 2,732 fetal deaths following COVID-19 shots for the past 11 months, while there have been 2,163 fetal deaths following ALL vaccines for the past 30+ years.
After reviewing this data supplied by the U.S. Government, how can anyone conclude that the experimental COVID-19 shots are safe? Even if they “worked” to prevent infection and transmission, which they don’t, would you risk it for a virus that, when treated early with monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin, etc. has a nearly 100% survival rate?