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Recently, the topic of the Omicron variant has been attracting public attention. An online picture said that the symptoms of the three "virus versions" of "Baoding version of the strain, Guangzhou version of the strain, and Beijing version of the strain" are different, of which the "Guangzhou version" has the mildest symptoms and the Baoding version has the most serious symptoms. So, what are the facts, Xiaobian takes you to understand together.
According to Xu Wenbo, director of the Institute of Virology of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the new coronavirus currently circulating in the mainland is mainly BA.5.2 and BF.7, a subbranch of the Omicron variant BA.5; Among them, BA.5.2 is popular in 31 provinces in mainland China; BF.7 is popular in 24 provinces on the mainland. The variant circulating in Beijing is mainly BF.7, and the variant circulating in Guangzhou is mainly BA.5.2.
What are the similarities and differences between these Omicron variants?
Zhang Qiwei, professor of the Institute of Pathogenic Microbiology and Guangdong Key Laboratory of Virology of Jinan University, said that BF.7 has a stronger immune escape ability than BA.5 because of the new escape mutation it carries, and some studies have found that similar escape mutations may lead to higher levels of virus replication after the virus escapes the human immune barrier, so clinically, the symptoms of infection with the BF.7 strain may be more serious than BA.5.
Compared with the BA.1 and BA.2 strains of the original Omicron, they carry more mutations that clearly cause viral immune escape and other uncertain functions. Compared with the earlier Omicron strain, it will be more efficient in transmission, and the symptoms will tend to be stronger in the population. However, how strong it is still needs to be further studied and observed, but compared with the original strain and the subsequent Delta strain that was first prevalent, from the current observation, there should still be a significant reduction in clinical symptoms.
Will there be reinfection between different variants of Omicron? For example, will I still get BA.5 after being infected with BF.7?
Zhang Qiwei: After a single infection of the virus, the body's immune level can generally only be maintained for about six months, after which it may be re-infected; If a new variant is encountered that carries a mutation in the antibody before escape, the time interval between reinfection will be shortened and the chance will be higher.
Because BF.7 carries a strong escape mutation, after infection with BA.5, after a period of time, there is a risk of reinfection with BF.7. At present, according to the wave of foreign epidemics and some research statistics, the level of immune protection generally decreases after six months of initial infection, coupled with new immune escape variants, superinfection will occur.
It should be emphasized that the greater the number of people infected with the new coronavirus, the faster the virus evolves, the higher the frequency of immune escape variants, and the higher the chance of reinfection in the population. Therefore, the government needs to take certain measures to slow the spread of the virus and control the large-scale infection of the population.
How long after vaccination does the protection of the vaccine decrease?
Tong Yigang, dean of the School of Life Science and Technology of Beijing University of Chemical Technology, said that the principle of action of the vaccine can be regarded as an extremely mild infection, but the antigen protection effect formed by the vaccine is far less than that obtained after the real infection. For example, the inactivated vaccine commonly played in our country, it cannot enter human cells, so its cellular immunity effect is relatively poor, and the overall immune effect will be defective. From some statistics, a person may be infected half a year after vaccination, and this infection rate is higher than that of secondary infection after half a year of infection.
If variants continue to emerge, do the public need to continue to get booster shots?
Tong Yigang: If a variant appears, a booster shot is required. Because the virus infects a disproportionate number of people around the world, so will its variants. These variants mutate at some sites during mutation, creating immune escape, and the vaccine's protection becomes weaker and weaker over time and as new variants emerge. So we have to get a booster shot, so that it will be less likely to escape immunity and the protection effect will be better.
Can general medical surgical masks effectively protect against these variants?
Zhao Wei, director of the tertiary biosafety laboratory of Southern Medical University of China, said that the protection principle of general surgical masks is to play a filtering role according to the size of virus particles, and the virus mutates, but the sequence of amino acids changes, and its particle size does not change, so as long as the virus is still a branch of Omicron, the protective effect of masks will not change. Read the full article >>>
Vaccination is an important measure and means of epidemic prevention and control. At present, Beijing Fengtai District has fully launched the second dose of the new crown virus vaccine booster immunization work.
On the morning of December 16, the reporter came to the new crown vaccination site on Qingta Street, Fengtai District, Beijing, and saw forty or fifty people queuing up for vaccination. According to the community leader, the number of vaccinated people served by the Qingta Subdistrict is about 70,000, and the fixed vaccination site can serve about 1,000 people a day, and the vaccination methods include needle push, nasal push and oral inhalation. In addition to fixed vaccination sites, there are mobile vaccination sites in this street for door-to-door service. Read the full article >>>
In addition to self-protection measures such as vaccination, many communities in Beijing have spontaneously formed residents' mutual aid groups, "say what is lacking in the group", one after another mutual aid groups, recording the scenes of mutual help and harmonious coexistence among neighbors in the community.
As the saying goes, help someone, love grows an inch. In the current difficult period, a box of medicine, a few fever-reducing stickers, and a bottle of disinfectant alcohol between neighbors are like warm winter sun, warming each other. This not only enhances the feelings of the neighborhood, but also adds warmth to the city - the city at this time is no longer strange, but a real existence that can be touched and felt.
When someone asks for help in the community's WeChat group due to lack of medicine, there will always be neighbors around who take the initiative to separate some of their own medicines; When elderly people living alone could not use antigen self-tests, enthusiastic neighbors began "online teaching" again; When children are sick and at a loss, there are also neighbors who come out to share their personal experiences ... These expressions of kindness are extremely natural, and it is precisely because of this nature that everything is more real.
Traditionally, the socio-ecological system of a modern megacity has been dominated by strangers. Therefore, neighbors are not familiar with each other, there is little communication upstairs and downstairs, and people's living conditions are generally atomized. However, this neighborhood mutual aid during the special period of the epidemic has broken this urban survival state to a certain extent.
At this moment, the city is no longer a society of strangers, but a special connection. This connection is not bloodline, but it is related to the most natural and simple emotions between people. In a way, it is also a reconstruction of ancient social relations. Therefore, this connection between people brings warmth to our city, and in this special winter, it is even more precious.
A box of medicine, a box of fever-reducing stickers, and a package of vegetables is a kind that is enough to comfort people's hearts, giving people in distress hope and more courage to overcome the epidemic.
In this winter of the epidemic, these goodwill will also converge into a warm current, and the place where it flows will be warmer and more alive since spring. Read the full article >>>
In the past decade, offline blind date bureaus focusing on mid-to-high-end routes in Beijing have emerged one after another. Many themes are frequently mentioned in the conditions of mate selection: "school dominance field", "post-90s special session", "tall special session", "high-value field"... On November 18 and 19, as a single young woman of marriageable age, the reporter participated in two offline blind date bureaus in Beijing.
At an offline blind date bureau in Beijing on November 19, personal information such as age, height, hometown, hukou location, family background, education, industry, position, annual income, garage, number of relationships, hobbies, and horoscopes were all condensed on paper. In just two words and a few numbers, you can reveal your family, starting line, strength when you were a student, your current social status and economic strength. After check-in, everyone will receive this form, which they will be asked to complete before the "eight-minute appointment" session officially begins.
A male guest was too lazy to fill it out, took out a crumpled personal information sheet from his trouser pocket, crossed out the last number, and changed it to this one. For the past three months, he has participated in at least two offline blind date games a week. As long as time permits, there is no limit to the organization and no topic.
This is his final sprint. In his early thirties, he longs to end his singleness before 2023.
At these two blind dates, the reporter met Zhang Xiaoqiu. Zhang Xiaoqiu, 31, works in a ministry and graduated from a university that has been ranked in the top 50 of the QS world rankings for many years. She and her ex-boyfriend just broke up and tried to dilute the inferiority complex brought to her by participating in a blind date game. Zhang Xiaoqiu participated in several offline blind date bureaus organized by different institutions in 2019.
On Sunday afternoon, November 20, Zhang Xiaoqiu participated in another blind date game of "Beijing Household Field".
In the blind date scene, competition is hard to avoid. "It may be a bit inappropriate to say this, but buying and selling is not benevolent." Zhang Xiaoqiu sighed with emotion, the personal information filled in is the result of everyone's hard work for many years, "No matter what the final result is, whether there is fate to find their true love, we should give strangers a little more kindness." ”
Shen Yifei, associate professor of the Department of Sociology at Fudan University, believes that in the process from acquaintance to love, "when we no longer care about our own interests and losses, 'we' are produced, and only then do we have the feeling of love." ”
Despite only participating in one blind date round, Ren Shan affirmed this blind date. Relying on specific blind date agencies, you can broaden social channels and meet more people. "Due to the impact of the epidemic, there are fewer opportunities to travel and go out to party, so you can chat with people from all walks of life and see the outside world in disguise."
"As long as you don't mind being more or less 'objectified', what if you meet true love." She hesitated and continued, "But why aren't we the ones who pick the goods?" Read the full >>>
At 23:00 on December 18, the final of the 2022 Qatar World Cup will be played at the Lussell Stadium, with Argentina led by Messi facing France led by Mbappe. This is the 11th time in the history of the World Cup that there has been a peak matchup between European and American teams, and both sides have won the title twice before, who can lift the cup for the third time? The performance of previous finals can provide some reference.
Since the first World Cup was held in 1930, the scale and format of the World Cup has been changing, from 13 teams to 16 teams, and then expanded to 24 and 32. In the past 21 World Cups, only one tournament has not had a final, and the 1950 World Cup was won by a round-robin tournament between the last four, with Uruguay winning the title with a record of 2 wins and 1 draw.
According to today's distribution of regions, the finalists of the World Cup have been made by European and South American teams, and teams from Asia, Africa, CONCACAF and the Caribbean have never competed for the championship and runner-up. In the past 20 World Cup finals, the South American team "Civil War" has only appeared once, in the first World Cup in 1930, Uruguay vs Argentina, and the European team "Civil War" has appeared 9 times, most recently in the 2018 World Cup.
In a sense, Europe versus South America was the main theme of the World Cup final, which has appeared 10 times before, with Brazil participating in 6 of them, winning 5 times, and Argentina participating in 4 of them, winning 2 times. In other words, South American teams face European teams with a record of 7 wins and 3 losses in the final. This year's final is the 11th time Europe has played against South America, with Argentina having a certain psychological advantage.
The most goals scored in any World Cup final came in 1958, when Brazil defeated Sweden 5-2 to win the title. That World Cup was also the beginning of Pele's legendary career, with the 17-year-old scoring a "hat-trick" in the semi-finals to eliminate France; In the final against Sweden, he scored twice again to help Brazil lift the cup.
The maximum goal difference in a World Cup final is 3, a total of 3 in history, all related to Brazil. In 1958, Brazil beat Sweden 5–2; In 1970, Brazil beat Italy 4–1. In 1998, Brazil suffered its only final defeat in its history, and the most painful one, when the "Samba Army" competed with the host France, Zidane scored twice and Petit scored, giving France a 3-0 victory. Read the full article >>>
On December 14, local time, Fraser Riksen, who has just reformed his cabinet and continues to serve as Prime Minister of Denmark, announced a rare plan: the government will cancel a public holiday in 2024 to raise funds for an increase in the defense budget. Fraser Riksen said Danish citizens would have to work an extra day the year after because the "big day of prayer" on the fourth Friday after Easter would no longer be a public holiday.
According to reports, the new Danish coalition government has agreed to achieve NATO's goal of "defense spending of no less than 2% of GDP per year" three years ahead of schedule, that is, by 2030. Denmark's finances are currently tight, so the cabinet plans to push for the cancellation of a public holiday in order to "increase productivity and economic activity." The female prime minister stressed that given that "there is a war going on in Europe, Denmark needs to strengthen its defenses... This requires more from each of us."
In fact, the reduction of public holidays is just a façade, behind the recent dramatic changes in Denmark's political landscape and the efforts of all parties to "stabilize".
In June 2019, Denmark formed a multi-party coalition government consisting of the "Red Battalion", or the Left Alliance, following parliamentary elections. The "Red Battalion" holds 91 seats out of 179 seats, of which Prime Minister Fraser Riksen's Social Democratic Party is the largest party in parliament with 48 seats, and the radical left-wing Danish Social Freedom Party is second in the "Red Battalion" with 16 seats.
Denmark is unicameral with a total of 179 seats in parliament, including 4 seats in Greenland and the Faroe Islands with two highly autonomous regions, and has traditionally not participated in Danish politics, so in fact, only 88 seats are needed to ensure cabinet stability.
However, the Social Liberal Party, which advocates radical environmental protection, became increasingly dissatisfied with the "conservative" style of the coalition government, so on July 2, 2022, it used the "mink incident" to attack it, accusing the cabinet of burying the suspected "heir" mink after the new crown "heir", forcing the coalition government to dissolve and having to hold an early general election on November 1.
The election result was dramatic: the Social Democrats continued to occupy the position of the largest party in parliament with their best result in recent years - 50 seats, but the "red camp" only had 87 seats after the shock, one seat short of the bottom line of 88 seats.
Rasmussen, the former prime minister who originally belonged to the Liberal Party and now leads the new party "Moderate Party", has become a decisive "kingmaker" because of his 16 seats, that is, his own seats and support are not high, but supporting any major force is enough for the latter to form a cabinet.
Because the Social Liberal Party, the initiator of this chaos, lost the election disastrously, but the situation of left-wing cabinet formation alone is still unpredictable, and blindly begging the moderate party to comply, it is easy to make Rasmussen odd goods, adding constraints to the future cabinet operation. After thinking about it, Fraser Rickson chose the bold "grand coalition" plan.
In the 23-member cabinet list announced on December 14, in addition to the prime minister, a number of Social Democratic and leftist ministers, including the finance minister, were also able to remain in office, but the chairman of the Social Liberal Party, Jensen, and the chairman of the moderate party and former prime minister Rasmussen, respectively, served as the important deputy prime minister, defense minister and foreign minister, and even a non-elected parliamentary minister.
In the face of high energy prices and the worst inflationary pressures in 40 years, Fraser Rickson needs the cooperation of right-wing collaborators such as the Social Liberals and the Moderate Party, and also wants to lift the judicial investigation against Mink Gate. To this end, she had to make striking concessions that pandered to the right.
Fraser Rikson, who was known as "Denmark's most powerful prime minister after the war" before the "mink incident", can be described as painstaking. Moreover, in the view of the secular right, it does not matter whether reducing public holidays stimulates more economic activity and reduces overtime pay actually "contributes to defense."
More importantly, can Fraser Rickson's intentional left-right convergence really be exchanged for long-term stability in the political arena? Denmark is the country in Northern Europe that lacks the tradition of "grand coalition government", and the last time there was such a "grand coalition government" to "ride through the difficult times" was 45 years ago, and it barely lasted 14 months before it collapsed. Read the full article >>>
Edited by Ai Zheng by Zhang Yao
Proofreading Li Lijun