Mutation in Denmark

Denmark
5.8 million people
17 million mink

Cull all mink, 207 farms effected, 1,000 farms overall

Mutated form of coronavirus

Transmissible to humans, 12 transfers so far

Virus may therefore already be in the local human population

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen

Mutated virus posed a risk to the effectiveness of future vaccine

Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, US

UK response

Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, announces travellers arriving after 4am on Friday must self-isolate for 14 days

Prof Kåre Mølbak, vaccine expert and director of infectious diseases

State Serum Institute

The worst-case scenario is that we would start off a new pandemic in Denmark

There’s a risk that this mutated virus is so different from the others that we’d have to put new things in a vaccine

and therefore [the mutation] would slam us all in the whole world back to the start

Dutch virologist and zoonosis expert, Wim van der Poel

more research needed

It seems the mink-variant mutation is found in the spike protein of the Sars-Cov-2 virus

but we don’t really know

Weasels, badgers, otters, ferrets, martens and wolverines

Prof Ian Jones, virologist at the University of Reading

The idea that the virus mutates in a new species is not surprising …

as it must adapt to be able to use mink receptors to enter cells and so will modify the spike protein to enable this to happen efficiently

The danger is that the mutated virus could then spread back into man

and evade any vaccine response which would have been designed to the original, non-mutated version of the spike protein

[lll-bmcp]

"Why not drive slowly until you can see whats round the corner? untill the headlights of science illuminate the way ahead" that's a great quote Dr.!

[RockDodger]

"Let the headlights of science illuminate the road ahead" - Dr John Campbell - [Hero, Teacher and all round top fella]

[TheAardvarkguy]

It’s called Risk Assessment, Dr John. You appear to be one of the very few doing it! Thank you. Forewarned is - hopefully - fore armed...

[williamhofmans]

"You gotta get up early in the morning to catch a fox and stay up late at night to get a mink." Mae West

[susanneangelaspringborgkri]

Im danish. Military and police are culling the mink and the part of the country with the possible transmission is closed of for minimum 4 weeks - massive testing is beeing done - but i agree close them borders.

[doccolorado]

Thank you Dr Campbell, perhaps one of the best channels for health education I've watched, easy to understand and factual! - sorry you are "under the weather" feeling today, thanks again!

[toastrecon]

There's a huge mink farm in Utah, USA that has been infected with COVID-19. They've had a lot of mink die, but guaranteed that it's going to become a reservoir and could produce a similar mutation. Nothing is being done with that one.

[MarcePaz]

UPDATE FROM DK: There are more than 20 million mink going to be put down in this week, the 7 regions of Denmark that are affected will ALL be tested estimated at around 300.000 people in the coming week, NOT ALL DENMARK has mink farms they are located majority in the north ( 7 regions), Today Monday 9 Nov we are in a lockdown here in the 7 Regions and the Transport system is down, so there is no moving out to other Regions, if you live in one region and work in another, we don´t go to work, the idea is to stop people moving.

[Xtydtodkpy]

Whenever I see your frustration, it reminds me of some Hollywood movies where a doctor/scientist keeps on trying his best to alarm the people and the politicians but none of them take the warning seriously...

[ajl]

This again proves we need to leave wildlife well enough alone

[klyndike]

Dane here. I guess the reason they aren't closing the borders is that most of the mink farm used workers from eastern Europe, flying them back and forth. So it's highly likely that its already out there. So sad really.

[davidmacgowan]

“The headlights of science illuminate what’s coming”. I love that. As a physicist, I stumble around in the dark until the dim lights make the room visible.

[savednorwegian]

*Thank you Dr John for covering Scandinavia and somewhat my country Norway* Stay safe and healthy <3

[beauxblake]

Dr. John, have they isolated this or even the original virus yet? CDC says no. Everything appears to be theoretical.

[leonardodavinci]

Mink farming is so incredibly cruel! Should be absolutely banned!

[quid]

This shows the risk of factory farming and the entire industry needs to be shut down for our own safety.

[paulcockman]

Dr John, I have been following you since January, I can't think of any predictions you have made that haven't actually turned into reality, I really hope you are wrong with this one, but I fear you may not be. Keep up the good work, by giving us your knowledge you have probably saved more lives than you could imagine. Just look at your viewer figures. A YouTube hero. Thanks for your hard work.

[torpetersen]

Dear John, we in Denmark are locking down the northern part of Denmark, where the infected mink are found. So we are reacting as if this is as serious as the worst case scenario. No one from the northern part of Jylland can cross into other parts of Denmark, and travel to Norway etc from this part of Denmark is shut down immediately. This decision was taken in cooperation with WHO and scientists around the EU, according to our government. I agree that we need to close the borders, and we have done this but in segment.

[blooberrybaggens]

I am hoping you have a speedy recovery and thank you so much as always for the update. We love and appreciate you and all you do

[sunmeetkaur]

The lesson we need to learn is to leave wild animals in the wild and stop factory farming for fur and meat.