New Variant
It’s been a while since we’ve done this, but we’re back now. The most recent variant has been Delta, who caused waves of COVID that we’ve never seen before all over the world, ravaging the unvaccinated and causing some breakthrough infections, though the vaccine saved those lives.
The new variant is from South Africa, and it hasn’t received a commonly used name yet, but it’s dangerous. It has 50 more mutations than the original virus in Wuhan, and more than any other variants, with scientists calling this the new jump in the evolution of the virus. For reference, the Delta variant had only 13 mutations, and this new variant contains previously known mutations along with new ones, giving us a new monster to deal with. South Africa is warning other countries as they’ve seen a recent spike in cases, and the WHO is looking into giving it the “variant of concern” status.
This poses a lot of danger not only to public health but the economy too. If this variant explodes, it could further exacerbate the supply chain constraints that the economy is witnessing right now, causing further spikes in inflation numbers, and deflating global economies. COVID restrictions would be placed once again, and it’s the same old drill now. The major question is how would it react with vaccines? The vaccines saw lower effectiveness with the Delta variant, albeit it was still high, but this is a different beast, so you can expect to see a lot of booster shots in the next few months. What do you think about this new variant?
I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.