COVID-19 News: BREAKING! Denmark’s Dangerous Mink Cluster 5 Variant Found In North Carolina-United States!

COVID-19 News: Despite claims that the initial Mink Cluster 5 Variants that were found in Denmark and also in the Netherlands had only infected a few people and that authorities including WHO had things in control since November, it has been emerging over the weeks that this is far from the truth. From the initial 11 humans who were infected with the variants in Denmark, it is becoming more apparent that are more people had been infected and that the variant had been detected in other countries after having infected other humans as well. Current PCR tests which are not able to detect these variants coupled with inadequate genomic sequencings and monitoring has led to its spread being undetected.


 
Now the first case of the Denmark “Cluster Five” variant of COVID-19 has been identified in North Carolina according to MAKO Medical Laboratories in an issued press release.
 
The World Health Organization accordingly claims that this Cluster 5 variant had been traced back to Danish farmed minks.
 
It was reported that the lab has also found five cases of the B.1.1.7 variant in North Carolina since it was first identified in Mecklenburg County Jan. 23.
 
Steve Hoover, vice president of laboratory operations at MAKO Medical told media, “As we continue our sequencing of indicated samples, we have found a continued rise in variant occurrences. Over the past week, indicated samples are now returning positive variant cases at a 50% rate, up from a 25% rate last week. The information we are collecting is shared directly with state health officials to assist in understanding the presence of the variants in communities across the country.”
 
It was also reported that South Carolina does not have any MAKO-identified cases of the Cluster Five variants, but they do have one B 1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants.
 
Interestingly the only other state found with Cluster Five variants identified by the lab is Colorado, which has recorded three cases but this was never made public then.
 
The Cluster 5 variant also referred to as ΔFVI-spike by the Danish State Serum Institute (SSI), is a variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It was discovered in North Jutland, Denmark, and is believed to have been spread from minks to humans via mink farms. On 4 November 2020, it was announced that the mink population in Denmark would be culled to prevent the possible spread of this mutation and reduce the risk of new mutations happening. A lockdown and travel restrictions were introduced in seven municipalities of North Jutland to prevent the mutation from spreading, which could compromise national or international responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.
 
The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that cluster 5 has a "moderately decreased sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies". https://www.who.int/csr/don/ 06-november-2020-mink-associated-sars-cov2-denmark/en/#:~:text=Initial%20observations%20suggest%20that%20the,have%20not%20been%20previously%20observed.
 
The SSI warned that the mutation could reduce the effect of COVID-19 vaccines under development, although it was unlikely to render them useless. Following the lockdown and mass-testing, SSI announced on 19 November 2020 that cluster 5 in all probability had become extinct. https://sum.dk/nyheder/2020/november/de-fleste-restriktioner-lempes-i-nordjylland
 
However it is emerging that this was more likely a cover up by the Danish and WHO officials.
 
In Denmark, there have been five clusters of mink variants of SARS-CoV-2; the Danish State Serum Institute (SSI) has designated these as clusters 1–5 (Danish: cluster 1-5). In cluster 5, also referred to as ΔFVI‑spike by the SSI, several different mutations in the spike protein of the virus have been confirmed. The specific mutations include 69–70deltaHV (a deletion of the histidine and valine residues at the 69th and 70th position in the protein), Y453F (a change from tyrosine to phenylalanine at position 453, inside the spike protein's receptor-binding domain), I692V (isoleucine to valine at position 692), M1229I (methionine to isoleucine at position 1229), and a non-conservative substitution S1147L.
 
https://files.ssi.dk/Mink-cluster-5-short-report_AFO2
 
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/detection-new-sars-cov-2-variants-mink
 
https://www.ssi.dk/aktuelt/nyheder/2020/mutationer-i-minkvirus
 
Interestingly mink-related mutations that partially resemble the mutations discovered in Denmark, although part of a separate genomic group, are known from the Netherlands.
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6525/172
 
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/RRA-SARS-CoV-2-in-mink-12-nov-2020.pdf
 
On 5 November, BBC News reported that 12 cases of human infection with the cluster 5 variant had been detected. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54833459
 
A week later, an ECDC rapid risk assessment report indicated that 214 mink-related human cases had occurred, however, few of these, if any, are believed to have been additional cases related to the Cluster 5 outbreak. https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/RRA-SARS-CoV-2-in-mink-12-nov-2020.pdf
 
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/health/no-evidence-to-suggest-coronavirus-cluster-5-variant-found-in-minks-increases-virus-transmissibility-disease-severity/article33047844.ece
 
The WHO and Dutch authorities claimed that the total number of human cases may not have exceeded the initially reported 12 and that he virus was most probably extinct. The efforts to conceal the degree fo the spread of this new variant then was to prevent further border closures and also to prevent Denmark from being classified a high risk area.
 
The WHO and The Danish authorities  by 20 November claimed that no further human cases of the Cluster 5 strain were being detected and it was assessed that the Cluster 5 variant was no longer circulating in humans.
 
However widespread genetic sequencing has revealed 750 cases related to mink variants including the cluster 5 variant. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/israelis-may-be-infected-with-new-coronavirus-strain-from-denmark-minks-648513
 
Thailand Medical News warns that there are massive cover ups with regards to emerging variants of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and also emerging zoonotic and human reassortant strains along with cover ups of the long term medical implications of what the virus and these variants can do to so called recovered COVID-19 patients (be it initial mild or even severe conditions or even asymptomatic cases).These coverups are due to the fact that many of the current COVID-19 vacines might not protect against these new emerging variants and also reassortant strains (there are trillions of dollars involved in these vaccines) and also due to the fact that governments across the world are worried about the possible economic fallouts and social unrest that could result.
 
Thailand Medical News will shortly be covering articles on the emerging SARS-CoV-2 reassortant strains (both human and zoonotic).
 
For the latest COVID-19 News, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.