Mutant Ninja Hurdles

Having a new administration is a real shot in the arm. But it doesn’t change the fact that we need to quickly implement a plan to get vaccines out to more people. This is the race of our lives, not just because of what Covid-19 is, but because of what it’s becoming. The mutations are here and they’re spreading faster and could be more deadly. Lawrence Wright in The New Yorker: Can the COVID-19 Vaccine Beat the Proliferation of New Virus Mutation. “Occasionally, a slight error in replicating the genetic code creates a mutant variant that spreads more successfully and, when that happens, evolution takes over. Stopping transmission blocks the opportunity for viral mutation; it’s the only thing that does. And the only means we have of standing in the way of the virus is vaccination. ‘It’s a race,’ Brooks said. ‘We’ve got to get people vaccinated before more of these mutations occur.'”

+ “This period is going to be a bit like a tsunami, in the way you stand on the beach and then suddenly you can see all the water retracts,” as cases drop, Krause said. “Afterward, you will have the tsunami coming in and overwhelming you.” WaPo: Denmark is sequencing all coronavirus samples and has an alarming view of the U.K. variant.

+Vox: Why scientists are more worried about the Covid-19 variant discovered in South Africa.

+ WaPo: Walmart, Starbucks, Amazon and other corporate giants moving to speed up coronavirus vaccine rollout. (Good, it’s about time the companies powerful enough to be nation states helped the the state of the nation.)