Recall issued for 38,000 GM vehicles in Canada over software safety glitch
Transport Canada has issued a recall for 38,000 General Motors (GM) vehicles for safety risks related to a software glitch, the agency reported in a notice on Wednesday.
Scientists around the world are racing to learn more about the newly discovered B.1.1.529 coronavirus variant, now known as Omicron, to see how it compares to other variants of concern.
The important questions – like how transmissible it is, how good it is at evading immunity from vaccines or past illness, and whether it causes more severe illness – remain to be answered.
While some scientists say it will be weeks before we get a clear picture of how Omicron will impact the pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday it expects to have more information on the transmissibility of the variant within days.
What we do know about this variant is that it contains more than 30 mutations in the spike protein, which allows it to bind to human cells and gain entry to the body – a factor that has elevated concerns for some scientists.
First, it’s important to remember that mutations to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, have been expected since the early days of the pandemic. That’s because mutations always arise as viruses spread – it’s how they ensure their own survival.
, SARS-CoV-2 gains access to our cells using its “corona†– a layer of protein spikes that fit into our cells like a lock and key – where it makes copies of its genomes.
But during that process, errors are inevitably introduced into the code, causing a mutation or variant.
Sometimes those mutations are harmless. But other times, like in the case of the Delta variant, the virus can change to become more transmissible or cause more severe illness.
“What we have seen with other viruses is, over time, they mutate in various ways. And one of the ways that they can mutate is to actually get a little bit less severe because there's a bit of a fitness cost to the virus,†Dr. Susy Hota, infectious disease expert at Toronto’s University Health Network told CTV’s Your Morning Wednesday.
“If it starts to kill off its hosts a little bit too early, it just won't replicate. And that's the goal of a virus, is to make more copies of itself and persist over time.â€
Hota notes that COVID-19 has held its advantage with previous variants because it tends to have infections that last for quite a while, giving it plenty of opportunity to spread from person to person.
The variant’s genome, in total, has around 50 mutations, including those in the spike protein, according to the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Scientists say it hasn’t directly evolved from the Delta variant and contains characteristic changes found in the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants.
“This variant carries some changes we’ve seen previously in other variants but never altogether in one virus. It also has novel mutations that we’ve not seen before,†Lawrence Young, a virologist and professor of molecular oncology at Warwick Medical School, told the BMJ .
Another distinguishing note is that one of Omicron’s mutations leads to “S gene target failure†– also referred to as “S gene dropout†– meaning one of several areas of the gene that are targeted by PCR testing gives a false negative.
“In one PCR test, three different genes are monitored. However, one of the S gene targets is not detected due to the mutations,†Chris Richardson, Microbiology and Immunology professor at the University of Dalhousie, .
“This is called S gene dropout or S gene target failure, which is actually helpful and is diagnostic of omicron. The dropout is a marker for this variant.â€
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), than previous surges in infection using this approach.
But researchers in South Africa first sounded the alarm over the B.1.1.529 variant after finding more than 30 mutations in the spike protein – a far greater number than what we’ve seen with any other variant.
Because the spike protein is the target of antibodies that our immune system produces to fight COVID-19, a high number of mutations raises concerns that Omicron may be able to evade the antibodies produced by a previous COVID-19 infection or vaccination.
“The spike protein of the virus is really important for entry into cells, as well as targets for antibodies that help to control infections. So, it's possible, scientifically, looking at the virus that it could be more transmissible than what we've seen so far,†Hota explained.
“It also could result in what we call immune evasion — in other words, your immune system may not be able to control it as well, so you may be susceptible to more reinfections or vaccines maybe a little less effective.â€
But Hota says these are merely hypotheses and we should be careful not to draw any conclusions from speculation or anecdotal reports about the severity of illness or transmissibility of Omicron at this stage.
“I think we need to see it in a larger number of people to get a good sense of how it compares to what we've seen so far with COVID 19,†she said.
Transport Canada has issued a recall for 38,000 General Motors (GM) vehicles for safety risks related to a software glitch, the agency reported in a notice on Wednesday.
About 10 senior Hezbollah commanders were killed along with Ibrahim Aqil, leader of the movement's Radwan special forces unit who was attacked in an Israeli air strike in Beirut on Friday, Israel's military spokesperson said.
An 11-year-old boy died Monday after subway surfing in New York City. He's the fourth person to die from subway surfing in the city this year.
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
Communication breakdowns with local law enforcement hampered the Secret Service's performance ahead of a July assassination attempt on former U.S. president Donald Trump, according to a new report that lays out a litany of missed opportunities to stop a gunman who opened fire from an unsecured roof.
An Ontario man says he’s still waiting for a vehicle he purchased on Kijiji to be delivered to his home. But after more than a month, he says he’s losing hope that the car will arrive and believes that he is a victim of a scam.
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Israel’s military has struck the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon’s capital, in a dramatic escalation in a year-long period of conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.
The province's public security minister said he was "shocked" Thursday amid reports that a body believed to be that of a 14-year-old boy was found this week near a Hells Angels hideout near Quebec City.
They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
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David Krumholtz, known for roles like Bernard the Elf in The Santa Clause and physicist Isidor Rabi in Oppenheimer, has spent the latter part of his summer filming horror flick Altar in Winnipeg. He says Winnipeg is the most movie-savvy town he's ever been in.
Edmontonians can count themselves lucky to ever see one tiger salamander, let alone the thousands one local woman says recently descended on her childhood home.