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Comment by rossdavidh | Hacker News Reader

So, uh, if I'm reading this article and the related ones in the Guardian correctly: 1) covid-19 infected mink have escape into the wild 2) probably hundreds of them (thousands per year * 5% of mink are infected) 3) at least one of the mink variants of covid-19 is different enough that there is reason to worry the vaccines might not give immunity to it, but we haven't seen that since September so it's probably gone 4) it will probably spread from mink to several other more common wild species 5) but, nothing to worry about

Uh, ok then.

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> 3) at least one of the mink variants of covid-19 is different enough that there is reason to worry the vaccines might not give immunity to it,

This is patently false, and the press have kept on saying it wrong to keep the terror giving them clicks. That mutation:

- Hasn't been observed in humans since Sep 5th;

- gives a slight advantage over escaping neutralizing antibodies (10%, not 100%)

- has no "fitness" at this point because there is no selective pressure for it

- has no effect on T cell based immunity

The Danish move was out of precaution, not because of the mutation, but because minks can become huge animal reservoirs of the virus due to the ease it spreads among them.

This is good to know, do you have a link? I haven't seen anything with any actual data in it, just generic reassurances. But good to hear.

Most of this is a summary of the links and the discussions in the r/COVID19 community on reddit (tightly regulated, scientific discussion only).

Some:

- https://www.reddit.com/r/COVID19/comments/jo2muy/mink_and_co...

- https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03218-z

That subreddit looks like an excellent source, thanks! While I am not panicking yet, I have to say this feels somewhat like how I felt about Covid-19 in December/January. "Hmmm...."

Of course, I also felt that way about SARS and bird flu and MERS and Ebola and Zika, so maybe that still means no need to get too concerned yet. But the statement that, essentially, any mutation which can occur in Covid-19, will occur many times (because the population is now so large), and the fact that this strain appears to have spread between mink farms miles apart in ways not yet explained, do give one food for thought.

If we can get Dustin Hoffman on it pronto there should be little worry.

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