02:07 And they just shut it down. You could see the trucks from space. That's how many trucks were lined up trying to get across the channel. And then all of a sudden it's like, well, okay, we're going to ease it up a little bit two days later. And then Brexit's announced. Tell me that's a coincidence? Am I just I think not. I don't think so either. It's too much of a, too weird of a coincidence. Nah, no way. And this phony baloney second strand of COVID, which is the common cold. It's a variant. It's a variant, my friend. It's a variant. A variant, yeah, that's what the common cold is. I have a couple of clips regarding the variant because I think this, seeing as how well it worked in the UK,
02:55 Might as well use it on the rest of the slaves of Gitmo Nation. This might be a good little tool. Just tell people there's a new variant that's much more contagious and whoa, be afraid. The common cold is much more contagious. This variant of the virus is stoking some alarm with some countries temporarily blocking travel from the UK. But so far experts are saying it's no more lethal or transmissible than the current strain. This is ABC World News Tonight. So what do we need to know? Yeah, I mean on such a day of such optimism with the vaccine now we're dealing with this new variant and there is some cause for concern. I don't give some reasons why scientists are sort of concerned about this. This particular variant one this version is replacing rapidly other versions of the virus and we've seen this rapid increase in cases in some regions of England. This variant has mutations actually 17 mutations which is a lot of variants that we've seen historically and there. Wait a minute.
03:52 Isn't a mutation a variant? I don't understand. Now, now this variant has seven mutations of its own? That doesn't sound that sounds weird. It's just gobbledygook. Well, they they're really pushing it, John, really pushing this shit. On the part of the virus, the spike protein that is entered, that use that is used for entry into the cells. So these mutations potentially are creating increased transmissibility of the virus. But there's some important caveats. One, we see variants like this emerge all the time and the data is very early. And so it could be biased with the fact that we saw increased mobility and travel. And so maybe we're just seeing artifacts of data. And there's really no evidence that this virus is more lethal.
04:37 Okay, so this is no evidence yet. It was used in the UK and everyone got freaked out I'm gonna go back and forth between ABC and CBS for a moment to show you some differences or similarities So that's ABC now we have CBS with Michael Osterholm Now this is the guy who I think is responsible for freaking a lot of people out early on in March when I was on Joe Rogan's show. He came on right after me and he was the guy saying it's going to be two and a half million dead, this is horrible, you have no idea what's going on. And he was rewarded. He is now in the coronavirus team for the president apparent.
05:15 here he is talking about this new strain. It's not just in the UK. I do want to ask you about this new strain of the coronavirus being identified in both the UK and South Africa. What does it mean for us here in the United States? Well, first of all, let me just say that I don't speak for the Biden-Harris transition team. These are my own professional opinions. Oh, okay. I'm very concerned about this. I think that it does represent a real challenge to us globally and that this particular variant, which is very different than any of the previous variants we've seen. How come we didn't hear about any previous variants? We were saying, hey, it looks like this is mutated. There's a bunch of things about this guy. One, he's just got the voice. He's got an incredible voice of authority. Oh yeah.
06:00 He's got the right tone, he doesn't stammer, he's not all excited. He's just got a beautiful voice of authority. This guy could do some damage. This is why I like when he starts off by saying, just so you know, I don't speak for the Biden-Harris transition team. I speak on my own. Hold on, hold on. Oh, ladies and gentlemen, here we go. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Same old, same old, going at moderate speed. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a Zephyr report where 7 is the new normal. It used to be 8, but we know the mail wagon is no longer attached. Please alert the guys at Swakbox CNBC. We have a stable economy. We're running forward into the new year. Bitcoin, $23,212. Oh my God! Woo! Listen to that horn! Bitcoin has kind of benefited, you might have noticed.
06:46 I don't know, a bit. I'm just kicking ass. Could very well substantially increase transmission of this virus and for the fact of how the vaccines and others may protect us is really unclear at this point. I find that interesting because a lot of people are asking this morning we've said that this virus is potentially 70% more contagious what does that actually mean? How does a virus become more contagious? Well, what happens is in part the virus actually makes it to a much higher level in an individual. Wasn't that good? It was just a pause that refreshes. So how does it happen? How does it work? What does that actually mean? How does a virus become more contagious?
07:29 Well, what happens is in part the virus actually may grow to a much higher level in an individual's throat and respiratory tract and there's actually data from England supporting that, that the people who are infected with this strain actually have more virus, which then might very well make them more infectious. And if that's the case, all you have to do is increase even marginally the number of people that any one individual infects and then you have potentially very rapid growth of the virus in the community that wouldn't have happened otherwise. And that I think is what's actually being seen right now in England. I'm gonna give you the whole load today. That's right baby, the new variant gonna give you the whole load. Let's go back to ABC to Dr. John Brownstein and let's see if there's gonna be a problem with the vaccines. I think the question on everyone's mind, you mentioned the good news about the vaccine
08:18 So could this impact the efficacy of the vaccines that have now been deployed in any way? So, so far scientists don't believe so. We think that it takes years for these mutations to build up in a way that they would have an impact on the vaccine. Unlike monoclonal antibodies, vaccines make actually what we call polyclonal antibody response and that means that there are multiple ways that the vaccine can protect you. So, a few mutations of the virus will not impact the ability for the vaccine to prevent you from getting severe COVID disease, the bigger concern is around what we call antigenic drift. And this is the change in the virus over time. This is what the- Hold on a second. What do you call that? Anthrogenic- Antigenic drift. Beautiful. Can I do that in my sports car? Can you put that down as a possible show title? Antogenic, is that what he said? Anti, antigenic drift. Antigenic drift. This is an awesome word.
09:15 And I said it, and I mean it. We can use this. You can pick up chicks with this word. The bigger concern is around what we call antigenic drift. But not with that voice. This is the change in the virus over time. This is what the flu virus is undergo, which means that we need a new flu virus vaccine. every year. And so what we're thinking more is the long-term needs of vaccines and how we may need to change this vaccine over time. But the concern immediately over the existing vaccines are just not there, and we should be proceeding as we have been, thinking that we're going to really have an impact on this virus with mass vaccinations over the coming months. Right. So then you go over to CNN, and Sanjay Gupta has a whole produced piece explaining