comment: >
  
  How exactly can they test for variants that haven’t been identified by the West or disclosed by China? Honest question, would new variants appear on standard tests? Or would the mutation be enough to slip by?
context: It is EXTREMELY early in this debacle of "Everybody COVID and travel freely ". >
  
  We've had plenty of experience with "Everyone has COVID and travels freely" this year in the West. Nothing new for us. >
  
  The West also has a widely available and effective suite of vaccines, whereas China has the wildly ineffective Sinovac so I do not think these two things are comparable. >
  
  That's true. 
  The spike in China is far less dangerous for us because we've already been through all that's currently wreaking havoc there.
  As the ECDC says:
  
  "Given higher population immunity in the EU/EEA, as well as the prior emergence and subsequent replacement of variants currently circulating in China by other Omicron sub-lineages in the EU/EEA, a surge in cases in China is not expected to impact the COVID-19 epidemiological situation in the EU/EEA," >
  
  Following through with your logic, Omicron was the last variant ever and a billion new infections is somehow magically never going to produce another mutation. If that were true, why do we still have the flu and common cold? >
  
  It's not my logic. It's the logic of the European Center for Disease Control, the agency responsible for this sort of stuff.
  There are lots of new mutations all the time. The question is whether there will be immunity-evading variants. That is unlikely to happen in the coming weeks in China due to less evolutionary pressure on the virus there. Doesn't mean it will never happen. >
  
  Every time the virus duplicates by using a human cell, it has a chance of making a mistake
  Every mistake has a chance of being an important mistake that changes how the virus behaves
  Every change in behavior has the chance to make the virus less potent or more potent
  The less potent variants die off
  The more potent variants spread and the cycle repeats until there are collections of more potent characteristics gathering into one dramatically new variant
  There's your 'evolutionary pressure'.
  A billion plus new hosts, each host with many cellular factories ready to make new kinds of mistakes.
  But sure, somehow Chinese cells are magically incapable of making mistakes from the chaotic instructions that the virus is giving them
  Direct from EU CDC:
  Dec. 29 The ECDC added that COVID-19 variants currently circulating in China are already circulating in the EU
  "We remain vigilant and will be ready to use the emergency brake if necessary," the ECDC said.
  What do you think 'currently' and 'remain vigilant' mean?
  “China has a population that is very large and there’s limited immunity. And that seems to be the setting in which we may see an explosion of a new variant,” said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University. >
  
  Calm down doomer, it's not 2020 anymore >
  
  From what I gather, China is pretty behind in terms of the type of covid they're getting. So it's not surprising they're not finding new variants. I guess the fear is that due to how quickly the virus has spread in China creates higher likelihood of mutation? Not a virologist so not gonna speculate further than that. But for the most part it seems China is essentially catching up from the beginning of omicron at a very fast pace towards what the rest of us have experienced already. >
  
  The likelihood of mutation is not higher just because the virus spreads faster. If anything, it's higher if it spreads slower. >
  
  Then that's kinda weird, because while China doesn't release much data, what they have released show they're going through older variants of Omicron (and some delta too iirc). So yeah if those aren't mutating due to how fast they're spreading, then I don't see what's the big fear. I mean is it any more dangerous to sell souvenirs to Chinese tourists compared to just eating out a restaurant or going to a shopping mall? I know where I live stores were packed for Christmas shopping with almost no one wearing masks. >
  
  The risk is Chinese tourists who have not been exposed or have not been vaccinated getting sick in the host country they are visiting and burdening the health care system due to their higher likelihood of developing more severe symptoms relative to someone who has 2-3+ shots and/or has already been sick. >
  
  This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 75%. (I'm a bot)
  
  
  ROME - There is no sign of new COVID-19 variants so far among passengers arriving in Italy from China in recent days, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, as she called for a new, EU-wide testing regime to guard against the threat from a resurgent coronavirus.
  On Wednesday, Italy became the first European country to introduce mandatory virus testing for people arriving from China.
  Meloni said the government had asked the EU for a bloc-wide response on mandatory testing, otherwise, she feared Italy's testing policy risked being ineffective.
  
  
  Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: Italy^#1 China^#2 Meloni^#3 new^#4 arriving^#5 >
  
  This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 75%. (I'm a bot)
  
  
  ROME - There is no sign of new COVID-19 variants so far among passengers arriving in Italy from China in recent days, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said, as she called for a new, EU-wide testing regime to guard against the threat from a resurgent coronavirus.
  On Wednesday, Italy became the first European country to introduce mandatory virus testing for people arriving from China.
  Meloni said the government had asked the EU for a bloc-wide response on mandatory testing, otherwise, she feared Italy's testing policy risked being ineffective.
  
  
  Extended Summary | FAQ | Feedback | Top keywords: Italy^#1 China^#2 Meloni^#3 new^#4 arriving^#5