COVID 19

So today another variant is announced. Just when most of us are thinking we are getting back to some sense of normal, post-COVID world, we discover mother nature has something else in store for us.

The OMICRON variant comes right behind Delta and all following other variants, Alpha, Beta, and Gamma. However, the Delta, variant. first spotted in India in December of 2020 has become the dominant strain in both the U.S and U.K.

Coronaviruses, however, didn’t just pop up out of thin air. They are a very large family of viruses that have been around for a very long time. Viruses infect the host (that means you), they attach to your cells get inside of them, and make copies of their RNA (RNA is similar to DNA but not completely). Scientists do this to make themselves look smarter than the rest of us.  Then to make things more confusing, if the copying of the RNA makes a mistake, voila, you have a mutation or a variant.

The Delta variant seems to be the ugliest of the variants so far, causing more severe illnesses for those who are unvaccinated.  Many of these patients end up in Critical Care, using Hi-Flow oxygen, Bi-Pap, or for some being intubated and placed on a ventilator. Irreversible lung damage often occurs.

There is another variant that doesn’t get much attention. MU (pronounced m’yoo) started showing up in Columbia at the start of 2021. It has stayed mostly in South America and Europe.  The CDC continues to monitor but currently, it makes up less than 5% of the U.S.

There are others too, R.1, Epsilon, Theta, and Zeta. Although downgraded by CDC, they are still monitored.

 Covid is not going anywhere. We must keep our guard up, It’s impossible to know how or when the mutations will come but make no mistake,  a virus will always change and mutations will come.

 This is a game changer for humans.  The dominant species has been brought to its knees and will have to fight long and hard to recover.  

Genetic research suggests that early human species almost a million years ago, including Homo Erectus, Homo Ergaster, and Homo Sapiens were impacted by unknown events causing mass devastation to the population on earth. Was it a meteor from the skies, devastating climate change, or as some have suggested, an unknown VIRUS?

 It is estimated that fewer than 55,000 humans existed at that point. We are all the descendants somehow of that small group and we may have to fight long and hard to survive as they did until science can eradicate Covid as they have done in the past with Polio, Tuberculosis, Smallpox, and many more. Do your Part. Get vaccinated, if not for yourself, then do it for mankind.