The new variants of the coronavirus are even more dangerous than those known so far. Researchers and politicians fear a sharp increase in the number of infections, with dramatic consequences like those seen in Britain. Can Germany still stop the new killers?
The student didn’t really stand out among the nearly 700 cases of the coronavirus recorded by the public health department in Berlin’s Steglitz-Zehlendorf district during the week before Christmas. The young woman was home for the holidays to visit her family, having traveled back to Germany from the university where she is studying in the United Kingdom. It appeared to be an everyday case of the coronavirus in the affluent southern part of Berlin.
Indeed, it wasn’t all that surprising she had caught the virus, given that infection numbers were skyrocketing in Britain at that point.
But the student also infected her entire family, five people, which is pretty uncommon.
Just as her infection was discovered, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had begun sounding the alarm: B.1.1.7, the new and far more contagious variant of the virus, was spreading in southeast England, he warned. The response came quickly: Flights to and from Britain were cancelled and the Eurotunnel was closed to traffic. By then, though, the mutated virus had long since begun spreading across Europe.
It was by coincidence that an employee at the Steglitz-Zehlendorf public health department had experienced the ebola pandemic in West Africa and had also earned a doctorate in virology. Shortly before Christmas, she made a call to the laboratory at the Robert Koch-Institute (RKI), Germany’s center for disease control, and asked to have the genome sequence of the student’s positive viral sample decoded.
The result arrived on Jan. 7. The student was found to be carrying the new B.1.1.7 variant of the virus.
Then, last week, the first case of B.1.351, a mutant of the coronavirus from South Africa, was detected in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg. It’s also thought to be much more contagious than previous variants. It had been brought into the state by a family that had arrived back from South Africa in mid-December.
The family had quarantined themselves as required under coronavirus regulations, and five days later they received a negative result after getting tested. But family members developed symptoms of the disease a week later. By then, six people from three different households had been infected.
In the neighboring state of Bavaria, there are also now three confirmed cases of coronavirus mutants and one suspected case. One patient who had become infected with the British variant was brought to a Munich hospital for treatment around the New Year has since passed away.
“The new variant of the virus has arrived in Germany,” says Clemens Wendtner, chief physician at the München Klinik hospital in Munich’s Schwabing district. It must be a feeling of déjà-vu for the physician, who also treated the very first known German COVID-19 patients last February. “The next few weeks will be decisive,” Wendtner says. “It’s possible that the pandemic will take on a whole new momentum.”
Image Credit: Phill Magakoe/AFP
Post by Amanda Scott, NA CEO. Follow her on twitter @tantriclens
Thanks to Heinz V. Hoenen. Follow him on twitter: @HeinzVHoenen

News
The Surprising Origin of a Deadly Hospital Infection
C. diff might not originate from external transmission but rather from within the infected patient themselves. Hospital staff dedicate significant effort to safeguard patients from infections during their hospital stay. Through practices ranging from [...]
Google AI breakthrough – huge step in finding genes that cause diseases
Google says it has made a significant step in identifying disease-causing genes, which could help spot rare genetic disorders. A new model named AlphaMissense is able to confidently classify 89 per cent of all [...]
New Study: Everyday Pleasures Can Boost Cognitive Performance
MINDWATCH study reveals cognitive peaks with everyday pleasures. Listening to music and drinking coffee are the sorts of everyday pleasures that can impact a person’s brain activity in ways that improve cognitive performance, including [...]
Moderna reveals new highly targeted COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1283
Moderna has developed a new and improved version of its COVID-19 vaccine. The unique formulation (mRNA-1283) reduces the vaccine's content from the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to a narrowly focused encoding of just two [...]
New nanotech weapon takes aim at hard-to-treat breast cancer
Breast cancer in its various forms affects more than 250,000 Americans a year. One particularly aggressive and hard-to-treat type is triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which lacks specific receptors targeted by existing treatments. The rapid [...]
Scientists upcycle plastics into liquids that can store hydrogen energy
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have created a process that can upcycle most plastics into chemical ingredients useful for energy storage, using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a commercially available catalyst, all [...]
Yale Scientists Uncover How the Immune System Can Alter Our Behavior
The mere scent of seafood can severely sicken those allergic to it — and therefore they are more likely to avoid it. Similarly, individuals who experience food poisoning from a specific dish tend to [...]
Whirlwind Tech – The Future of Energy-Efficient Spintronics Computing
Researchers in Germany and Japan have been able to increase the diffusion of magnetic whirls, so-called skyrmions, by a factor of ten. In today’s world, our lives are unimaginable without computers. Up until now, [...]
Omicron’s Silver Lining: Significantly Lower Risk of Long COVID
Omicron infections have a lower risk of long COVID than earlier variants, according to a study analyzing data from 11,000 participants. The risk of developing long COVID is significantly lower following an infection with [...]
The Hidden Mechanism Connecting Diabetes and Cancer
Researchers have discovered that insulin resistance, typically linked with type 2 diabetes, is also present in cancer patients and can accelerate the spread of the disease. In the 1920s, scientists found that the urine [...]
Scientists Unveil Urea’s Secret Role in the Origin of Life
Scientists from ETH Zurich and the University of Geneva have developed a new technique that allows them to observe chemical reactions taking place in liquids at extremely high temporal resolution. This innovation enables them to track how molecules [...]
Viagra Lowers Alzheimer’s Risk by Almost 70%, Early Study Finds
Research published recently suggests that Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction drug Viagra can decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by up to 69 percent. The research, which was published in Nature, found that the medication has [...]
Future of Medical Imaging: Advanced AI Can Tell Your True Age by Looking at Your Chest
An AI-powered model utilizes chest X-rays to help develop biomarkers for aging. What if determining “your age” was based on your chest rather than your face? Scientists from Osaka Metropolitan University have crafted an [...]
Ultra-sensitive biosensors detect cancer in a blood test
Cancer biomarkers circulating in body fluids can be used for diagnosis and treatment monitoring. However, current detection technology lacks the required sensitivity, limiting biomarker use in clinical applications. Colorectal cancer is the second most [...]
Viruses cause 200+ diseases. This one drug may be able to treat them all.
By taking aim at a process common across many viruses, the drug could one day stop any number of known viruses — and new ones. t’s about as audacious an idea as you can [...]
Scientists Identify Potential Treatment for Rare and Devastating Lung Disease
The findings could lead to a cure for LAM. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati may have identified a potential treatment for lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a rare lung condition resembling cancer found predominantly in women of reproductive [...]