Oxford University researchers have found a gene – LZTFL1 – that’s present in 60% of South Asians and allows the virus to multiply in the lungs more easily. By contrast, only 15% of Europeans and 2% of black Africans have the gene. MailOnline has more.
Scientists say the genetic quirk may partly explain why South Asian people in the U.K. have been disproportionately affected by Covid.
But they emphasised the single gene is not the sole reason for the disparity, and highlighted the seriousness of social and economic factors.
Office for National Statistics data show Bangladeshi men were nearly five times as likely to die with the virus than their white counterparts during the second wave of the pandemic in England.
Pakistani men were the second most affected (3.4 times as likely), while Indian men were the fourth worst hit ethnic group (1.95 times as likely).
Experts had previously found a stretch of DNA could double the risk of dying in adults aged 65 and above but were not aware of the exact gene that was causing the effect.
Professor Jim Hughes, a genetics expert who co-lead the study, said: “The reason this has proved so difficult to work out, is that the previously identified genetic signal affects the ‘dark matter’ of the genome.
“We found that the increased risk is not because of a difference in gene coding for a protein, but because of a difference in the DNA that makes a switch to turn a gene on.
“It’s much harder to detect the gene which is affected by this kind of indirect switch effect.”
Worth reading in full.
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Anti Royalist sentiments. The msm is vociferously endorsing one of the family members and his wife, while for the last few years of the Duke’s and the Queens lives, that particular family member were expressing those sentiments for the world to hear and read for cash. To arrest anyone for expressing their own sentiments seems hypocritical
Trevor Sinclair should not lose his job, he should be given another go at apologising for his opinions.
Hmm. Not quite the pinnacle of sceptical thought.
I think Toby Young and Nick Dixon should listen to what they’ve said and maybe have another go themselves.
No matter how royalist you are, there is such a thing as overkill. We’ve still over 5 days of this compelled national woe to endure before HMQ’s funeral and it’s driving me nuts – and I was a fan of the Queen. I’m so glad I haven’t had an appointment cancelled, and it was a wrong move to do this.
It’s got so bad I’m actually starting to feel sorry for the Royals (unheard of!) This mawkish, overblown theatre of Britain in Gloom must grind their gears as well as some of ours. When Charles threw a tantrum over the leaky fountain-pen, I can only think it was symptomatic of the strain he’s under. OTOH, maybe he is just a prat, but I can’t imagine the Queen doing that. The enforced walking behind the coffin seems just cruel and now seems ingrained in the catalogue of What We Do.
I expect it’s all driven by a fear of being found wanting in respect, but I can’t bear cruelty, even when it’s being inflicted on people I don’t particularly like.
Well said.
Quite agree.
When talking about some of the tweets, e.g. from the professor at Carnegie Melon, the guys didn’t use the word obscene, although they maybe should’ve done. However what they didn’t say, and no one else has said, is that the burden placed on Charles and the other senior royals is nothing short of obscene. I’m not a moderate republican, and disagree with a lot of what certain royals (Charles and Harry in particular) have said in the recent and not so recent past. However I also see in them fellow human beings who have just experienced one of the worst things that could happen to anyone i.e. loosing a beloved member of their family. Surely they could’ve been allowed to grieve in private and not make a public appearance until the Queen’s funeral, after which Charles could’ve become King Charles III. Even the most ardent monarchist would have to admit that the country wouldn’t collapse into anarchy if we went for 2 weeks without an official head of state.
Something else that hasn’t been mentioned anywhere is the issue of virtue signalling, which the daily sceptic has rightly criticised in the past. Therefore I find it strange that they haven’t wondered how much of the public outpouring of grief over the Queen’s death can be explained by virtue signalling. I remember when Princess Diana died in 1997 and numerous commentators in the media were taken aback by the massive public show of grief. The term virtue signalling hadn’t been invented back then, so they talked about people doing what they felt they should do, and even wondered if it was a mild form of mass hysteria. It makes me wonder how many people queueing for 20+ hours to see the Queen’s coffin and/or travelling hundreds of miles to lay flowers in London are just doing what they think they should do, in other words virtue signalling.
On London Calling I am generally Team Toby but I may be moving towards the Delingpole view that Toby is a cuck on Liz Truss.
The nonsense from Truss about fracking “under the right circumstances” is just a mealy mouthed way of saying no while appearing to no longer be an opponent. Truss has enabled local councils to block fracking regardless of the national interest.
Truss’s energy subsidy might be a short-term political necessity but it would have been far better to have immediately suspended all net zero taxes, subsidies, mandates and associated regulations for a decade and then made net zero the focus of the next election.
Liz Truss clearly doesn’t grasp the enormity of the problem and isn’t up to the job of PM, we don’t have to wait for the results of the next election to see that Truss is the Kim Campbell of the UK Conservative Party. Campbell was briefly PM of Canada and led the Conservatives from a majority government to 2 seats after less than 100 days as PM.
It is hardly controversial being against the monarchy. Like every other institution, from Parliament, the Police, the Judiciary, the Clergy, they are all on board with the Great Reset.
The Queen was happy to meet Trudeau and therefore condone his action against the Canadian Truckers.
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