RE: Just an observation1 Dec 2021 13:03
Sounds logical but the logic falls down quickly - this new variant has emerged in Summer in Southern Africa when people are mixing more outdoors. Gauteng [the epicentre] is situated on the Highveld; as it is several thousand feet above see level and away from the coast it gets very cold in Winter so a Southern Hemisphere outbreak should happen in Winter when more people are indoors. A bit like we model the flu vaccine on the strands circulating in Australia each year.
To possibly make matters worse, there is a current school of thought that this variant has mutated for many months in an immunocompromised person, most likely suffering from XDRTB or HIV, before escaping into the wild. There are too many areas in the world where there are such people with no treatment who could be a harbour for this virus to mutate within - that means care needs to be taken whether it is summer or winter.
I could be more cheerful but I have Parliament on in the background whilst I cook...