Creationism's divine malevolence is not giving up on its stunningly successful SARS-CoV-2 virus that killed millions, made hundreds of millions suffer and wrecked economies worldwide in the worst pandemic since its 'Spanish Lady' influenza pandemic of 1918-19.
Just because medical science produced the very effective mRNA vaccines against in in record time, bringing the pandemic under control, and its effects down to manageable proportions, is no reason to give up on it and admit defeat.
It is now designing ever more variants, some of which, like the latest, LB.1 (aka D-FLiRT) is currently surging in parts of the world, having succeeded XBB, JN.1, FLiRT and FLuQE.
How Sars-CoV-2 needs to keep infecting people, or it will become extinct as its supply of hosts dries up by becoming resistant to it. How it keeps on evolving to keep infecting people by overcoming natural and acquired immunity as vaccines are updated to try to keep up with it, is the subject of an article in The Conversation by Professor Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of South Australia. His article is reprinted here under a Creative Commons License, reformatted for stylistic consistency:
LB.1, or D-FLiRT, is the newest COVID subvariant. What do we know about it? Where has it come from?
Adrian Esterman, University of South AustraliaHeadlines are again warning of a new COVID variant in Australia. This time it’s LB.1, or as some experts have dubbed it, “D-FLiRT”.
Emerging evidence suggests LB.1 could be more transmissible than earlier Omicron subvariants, though there’s nothing to suggest it will cause more severe disease.
But before we look more closely at LB.1, how did we get here in the first place? The COVID virus is a crafty thing, continuing to evolve so it can keep infecting us.
From XBB to JN.1 to FLiRT to FLuQE
Our current COVID vaccines are based on XBB.1.5, a subvariant of Omicron. Along with other XBB subvariants, XBB.1.5 caused a wave of COVID cases around the world in 2023.
In August 2023, a new subvariant called JN.1 was discovered in Luxembourg. Until that point, new Omicron subvariants only had small genetic changes from their predecessors (called genetic drift).
However, JN.1 was unusual in that it was 41 mutations away from XBB.1.5 (big changes like this are called genetic shifts). Because of these changes, it was expected that JN.1 would take off, and indeed, JN.1 caused another wave of infections in Australia and around the world at the end of 2023 and the beginning of this year.
JN.1 then mutated further, giving us the “FLiRT” subvariants such as KP.1.1, JN.1.7 and KP.2.The JN.1 variant is an evolutionary ‘step change’ in the COVID pandemic – why is this significant?
— The Conversation - Australia + New Zealand (@ConversationEDU) January 29, 2024
As @majumdar_suman + colleagues (@BurnetInstitute + @UNSW) write, it has become dominant in Australia + around the world, causing large waves of infections. https://t.co/DJetxtg0iD
Proteins including the spike protein (a protein on the surface of the virus which allows it to attach to our cells) are made up of amino acids, essentially molecular building blocks. When scientists “sequence” new variants, they work out the exact order of amino acids in the spike protein, as this can change the behaviour of the virus.
Each amino acid has its own letter abbreviation. The FLiRT variants were named for two genetic mutations to the spike protein. The sequence changed from phenylalanine (F) to leucine (L) at position 456 (genetic mutation F456L), and from arginine (R) to threonine (T) at position 346 (R346T).
Research yet to be peer-reviewed suggests these genetic changes gave the FLiRT subvariants better capacity to evade our immune responses, but slightly poorer ability to establish an infection once they get into our cells (sometimes called binding efficiency).
The FLiRT subvariants have themselves now mutated. Some of these new subvariants are called FLuQE, and include KP.3, which along with KP.2 is currently dominating around the world.There's a new COVID variant doing the rounds - so what makes FLuQE unique? https://t.co/wnXOp6anyo
— The Conversation - Australia + New Zealand (@ConversationEDU) July 10, 2024
These are similar to the FLiRT subvariants with additional genetic mutations. One is called Q493E – hence the name FLuQE. Along with another mutation, F456L, these changes appear to have helped the virus regain some of its reduced ability to infect cells compared to FLiRT by increasing binding efficiency.
From FLiRT to LB.1
Reports suggest LB.1 was first detected in March 2024. LB.1 is similar to the FLiRT subvariants but with an additional mutation in the spike protein called S:S31del. The “del” refers to a deletion – a genetic change where a part of the virus’ genetic sequence is removed or lost during replication. In this case, the 31st amino acid (serine) in the spike protein is removed.
For this reason, it’s been given the nickname “D-FLiRT” or “DeFLiRT”. This also covers other variants carrying the same mutations as FLiRT but with this deletion, such as KP.2.3.
Preliminary results from a research group at the University of Tokyo, who conducted modelling and lab experiments with these emerging subvariants, indicate the transmissibility of LB.1 and KP.2.3 may be higher than both KP.2 and KP.3.
COVID continues to evolve.
LB.1 has been detected in multiple countries, including Australia, and is being monitored closely by bodies like the World Health Organization and the CDC.
In the United States, as of July 15, KP.3 accounted for about 37% of cases, KP.2 for 24% and LB.1 for another 15%, having been steadily rising over recent weeks.
KP.3 and its descendants such as KP.3.2 and KP.3.2.1 (FLuQE subvariants) are similarly dominating in Australia, accounting for at least 50% of cases. We don’t know what proportion of cases LB.1 is making up in Australia at present. It’s possible LB.1 infections are still negligible, but they may well grow over time.
While COVID cases appear to be declining after a recent wave in Australia, LB.1 may eventually out-compete KP.3, and between them, cause another wave of cases.
We are already seeing a bad season for respiratory viruses with both RSV and influenza cases higher than last year. So a variant with increased transmissibility could add to our winter woes.
The good news is there’s no evidence to suggest LB.1 causes any different symptoms or more severe illness than previous Omicron subvariants.
The current vaccines based on XBB.1.5 should still give some cross immunity against LB.1, and oral antivirals such as Paxlovid and Lagevrio should still work. We will likely be getting an updated vaccine based on KP.2, probably towards the end of the year. That should provide better protection against these new subvariants since genetically, they’re very similar to KP.2.
Adrian Esterman, Professor of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, University of South Australia
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
- A mutation that makes an organism better at making more copies of itself can't logically be regarded as 'devolutionary' since it is a classic example of an evolutionary mutation.
- Blaming 'Sin' betrays the fact that creationism is Bible literalism in disguise - something the Discovery Institute has been working hard to hide since launching its 'Wedge Strategy' in 1998.
The Unintelligent Designer: Refuting The Intelligent Design Hoax
ID is not a problem for science; rather science is a problem for ID. This book shows why. It exposes the fallacy of Intelligent Design by showing that, when examined in detail, biological systems are anything but intelligently designed. They show no signs of a plan and are quite ludicrously complex for whatever can be described as a purpose. The Intelligent Design movement relies on almost total ignorance of biological science and seemingly limitless credulity in its target marks. Its only real appeal appears to be to those who find science too difficult or too much trouble to learn yet want their opinions to be regarded as at least as important as those of scientists and experts in their fields.
Available in Hardcover, Paperback or ebook for Kindle
The Malevolent Designer: Why Nature's God is Not Good
This book presents the reader with multiple examples of why, even if we accept Creationism's putative intelligent designer, any such entity can only be regarded as malevolent, designing ever-more ingenious ways to make life difficult for living things, including humans, for no other reason than the sheer pleasure of doing so. This putative creator has also given other creatures much better things like immune systems, eyesight and ability to regenerate limbs that it could have given to all its creation, including humans, but chose not to. This book will leave creationists with the dilemma of explaining why evolution by natural selection is the only plausible explanation for so many nasty little parasites that doesn't leave their creator looking like an ingenious, sadistic, misanthropic, malevolence finding ever more ways to increase pain and suffering in the world, and not the omnibenevolent, maximally good god that Creationists of all Abrahamic religions believe created everything. As with a previous book by this author, "The Unintelligent Designer: Refuting the Intelligent Design Hoax", this book comprehensively refutes any notion of intelligent design by anything resembling a loving, intelligent and maximally good god. Such evil could not exist in a universe created by such a god. Evil exists, therefore a maximally good, all-knowing, all-loving god does not.
Illustrated by Catherine Webber-Hounslow.
Available in Hardcover, Paperback or ebook for Kindle
Illustrated by Catherine Webber-Hounslow.
If Creationists were honest and admitted the creator is a malevolent sadist that would mean He or It is not all good. Being all good is a principle tenet of traditional theism and religious folks cannot admit there's any evil in the creator. They have been brainwashed, blinded, programmed, conditioned to believe in a creator God that's all good, all mighty, all wise, loving, merciful, caring, nurturing, perfect, sovereign, rational, sane. Common sense and logic shows that He could not possibly be all of these things at the same time. No way no how. It's just an impossibility. So religious folks have backed themselves in an impossible corner and have to believe an impossible set of beliefs and try to make impossible arguments(Theodicy) to maintain their impossible beliefs in an impossible God. There's a saying that goes If something seems too good to be true it usually is. If such a wonderful fantastic God really existed then there would not be one millionth of the evils in the world. It's wishful thinking and not reality to believe such a wonderful fantastic God really exists. That's why religious folks are deceived and delusional because they choose to believe in falsity and not in reality.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to God and religion and scriptures people are unable to think straight and unable to see straight, and unable to think logically. Thank you for reading.