There need to be more forensic pathologists to follow all the COVID-19 variants. We (medical professionals and forensic experts) are allowing variants to fly under the radar.
Lambda has a real potential to be the FIRST Level Three Virus. Yet, because the PATH of these variants is important, the community is putting emphasis on "the virus of the moment," hence, intense tracking on the Delta Variant. While the global community is discussing the Delta Variant, Lambda is spreading widely and only being picked up when sequencing is being done. The sequencing for Lambda is rarely performed and only showed up as it grew in numbers among the people.
The reason Lambda is being sequenced at all is because it is making people sick and they are presenting in the hospital emergency room. If Lambda is presenting with ill and suffering people then it is just as important as Delta if not more so. Why? Because we understand Delta. We know all that we need to know and now it is a matter of numbers of people and CONTACT TRACING where it is realistic to do it.
IT IS TIME TO MOVE ON to sequence Lambda and understand it ENTIRELY. The focus on sequencing has to take place and it's characteristics known BEFORE it becomes more dangerous than Delta.
The scientific nightmare of a virus becoming stronger than the people's immune system is playing out with Delta. Delta is more contagious and it is making unvaccinated people sick who are then passing it along to vaccinated people that have compromising health situations such as COPD or asthma.
We need to know more about Lamda! Now! And we need more lab space and staff to adequately identify through sequencing the virus and thorough clinical examination of reporting, the symptoms of patients.
Let's do this thing. It is NOT a waste of time and money to know the enemy better than we know ourselves.
By Laurel Wamsley
...Lambda spread (click here)until it became a dominant sequence in people with COVID-19 in Peru. The WHO noted last month an elevated presence of lambda in other South American countries, including Argentina, Chile and Ecuador. And now we know it's present in the United States.
The lambda variant carries a number of mutations with suspected implications, such as potential increased transmissibility or possible increased resistance to neutralizing antibodies, the WHO says. But it says the full extent of those mutations' impact isn't yet well understood and will need further study....
