Monday 15 March 2021

Canada Coronavirus: Rising fears about variants spreading even as provinces relax measures


Global News shows that there's still a long way to go to get a COVID-19 vaccine for every Canadian who wants one. 

However, with new virus variants continuing to spread, the government is urging people to be cautious, with Canada's chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam encouraging people to keep to a "steady pace" and support "Team Vaccine" by not providing "Team Variant" to gain any ground. 

Eric Sorensen reports on the spread of variants and what could be in store for Canada as warmer weather approaches. 

There are many Coronaviruses out there. Coronaviruses didn’t just pop up recently. They’re a large family of viruses that seem to have been around for a long time. Many of them can cause a variety of illnesses, from a small mild cough to severe respiratory illnesses.

The new (novel) coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is one of several known to infect humans. It is possible that this virus has been around for some time in animals. Sometimes, a virus in animals attaches to people. This virus existed for some time before humans "discovered" it.

Human Coronavirus Types:

Scientists have divided coronaviruses into 4 sub-groupings, called: alpha, beta, gamma, and delta. 7 of these viruses can infect people:

229E (alpha)
NL63 (alpha)
OC43 (beta)
HKU1 (beta
MERS-CoV, a beta virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)
SARS-CoV, a beta virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19

Virus Variants can happen. Dangerous Coronaviruses have all their genetic material in RNA (ribonucleic acid). RNA has some similarities to DNA, but they aren’t the same.

When viruses infect you, they attach to your cells, get inside them, and make copies of their RNA, which helps them spread. If there’s a copying mistake or deviation, the RNA gets changed. These are the virus mutations. These changes happen randomly and by accident. This is what usually happens to viruses as they multiply and spread around the world.

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