Man, 43, arrested in hunt for Michigan sniper who fired at random cars in four counties in two-week campaign of terror

• Suspect arrested in Wixom, the Detroit suburb where shootings began
• Targets in 24 incidents were mostly cars on roads near Interstate 96
  

By Graham Smith for MailOnline

Published: 12:31 EDT, 7 November 2012 | Updated: 15:47 EDT, 7 November 2012

[if gte mso 9]>Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-GBX-NONEX-NONE

A man has been arrested on suspicion of being the sniper who shot at random cars in four Michigan counties in two weeks.

The 43-year-old suspect was taken into custody on Monday night in Wixom, the Detroit suburb where the shootings began.

Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth called the attacks, which wounded one person, ‘domestic terrorism’.

He said: ‘Why did he do it? I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever know.’

Janice Schumacher, 43, was pumping gas in Wixom when she heard that a suspect was in custody.

‘I hope this is the guy,’ said the Commerce Township resident who for the past several weeks has been using alternate routes to run personal errands and shuttle her three children to and from school

‘For weeks, I haven’t been able to breathe while driving with my kids in the car. If they finally got this guy, that would be a major relief.’

Before the arrest, clues appeared to be few – slugs and bullet fragments embedded in cars, metal casings on roadways, a simple black-and-white sketch of the shooter – a man believed to be in his late 20s or early 30s – and vague descriptions of the dark car he drove.

The crime scene where the shootings took place is 100 miles long and slices through suburbia, shopping malls and farm pastures.

Shootings have occurred during the day, at night, on weekdays and on weekends. Police say the shooter would drive along roadways and fire at vehicles traveling in the opposite direction. Only one person was wounded.

Initial reports of shootings stirred panic. Wixom schools restricted recess and other activities that would take students outdoors. Drivers avoided main thoroughfares where they might be exposed and stuck to side streets.

But police have been working hard to maintain calm. In Wixom – where ten shootings have been reported – police had special Halloween patrols to protect trick-or-treaters.

From Oakland County, northwest of Detroit, to Shiawassee County, northeast of Lansing, authorities stopped cars resembling the shooter’s vehicle. A $102,000 reward was offered.

‘I’ve always felt safe here. But this has been very shocking,’ said Karen Adams, 51, who lives one street away from the suspect.

Is this the Michigan Sniper? Far-right activist who bragged about carrying a gun every day is arrested for shooting at TWO DOZEN cars

• Suspect arrested in Wixom, the Detroit suburb where shootings began
• Targets in 24 incidents were mostly cars on roads near Interstate 96
  

By Graham Smith for MailOnline and Michael Zennie

Published: 18:39 EDT, 7 November 2012 | Updated: 19:10 EDT, 7 November 2012

[if gte mso 9]>Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-GBX-NONEX-NONE

The man accused of terrifying suburban Detroit, Michigan, for two weeks by shooting at two dozen cars on the highway ranted about far-right-wing politics for months before the attacks.

Raulie Wayne Casteel, 43, bragged on his Twitter feed about carrying a handgun everyday and said President Obama should be arrested by the military and ‘marched out of the White House in handcuffs.’

Police arrested him Sunday night at his home in Wixom, Michigan, near the epicenter of the seemingly random shootings.

His mother, who lives in Florida, has she her son is mentally ill and that she had tried and failed to get him help, but she never believed he would resort to violence.

Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth called the attacks, which wounded one person, ‘domestic terrorism’.

He said: ‘Why did he do it? I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever know.’

Sheriff Wriggelsworth said a tip – one of close to 3,000 that have come in – led authorities to the man’s home. He declined to disclose what the suspect told investigators.

The shootings began on October 16 and stretched from Oakland County west to Ingham County.

The targets in the 24 reported incidents were mostly cars traveling on roads near Interstate 96. Only a handful of shootings actually occurred on the interstate.

The crime scene where the shootings took place is 100 miles long and slices through suburbia, shopping malls and farm pastures.

Shootings have occurred during the day, at night, on weekdays and on weekends. Police say the shooter would drive along roadways and fire at vehicles traveling in the opposite direction. Only one person was wounded.

Scott Arnold, 46, from Kalamazoo, shot in the buttocks as he drove along eastbound I-96 on October 27, heading to a World Series game in Detroit. He was rushed to the hospital, but did not suffer a life-threatening wound.

Initial reports of shootings stirred panic. Wixom schools restricted recess and other activities that would take students outdoors. Drivers avoided main thoroughfares where they might be exposed and stuck to side streets.

Janice Schumacher, 43, was pumping gas in Wixom when she heard that a suspect was in custody.

‘I hope this is the guy,’ said the Commerce Township resident who for the past several weeks has been using alternate routes to run personal errands and shuttle her three children to and from school.

‘For weeks, I haven’t been able to breathe while driving with my kids in the car. If they finally got this guy, that would be a major relief.’

Before the arrest, clues appeared to be few – slugs and bullet fragments embedded in cars, metal casings on roadways, a simple black-and-white sketch of the shooter and vague descriptions of the dark car he drove.

Michigan State Police Lt Michael Shaw told Mail Online investigators have not been able to determine a motive because Casteel requested a lawyer shortly after his arrested.

However, he said, detectives are looking into a possible connection between the shootings and his political posts on Twitter.

‘It is something we are looking at as a possible part of the investigation we’re not sure whether that has any connection with the case or not, but it is something we’re aware of,’ he said.

Casteel began making frequent posts about politics on his Twitter account in April. He frequently cited conservative pundits, but other more right-wing sources, as well.

He also talked about ‘open carry,’ the practice of carrying a non-concealed handgun.

‘The 2nd Amend is an absolute – absolutely no compromises – I carry everwhere I go!’ he wrote on September 28. 

He also frequently posted about the need to impeach the President.

‘I want the arrest and impeachment of Barack Obamo. I’ve given the military the option of marching him out of the W.H. in handcuffs,’ he wrote October 1.

He also said he had purchased a book called ‘Hostile Takeover: Resisting Centralized Government’s Stranglehold on America’ by Tea Party activist William Morrow.

Lt Shaw said officers seized a 9mm pistol from Casteel’s home. Pistol-caliber bullets were used in the highway shootings, though he could not confirm whether the bullets recovered were fire from Casteel’s gun.

Lana Hunt, 62, who lives in Florida, told the Detroit Free Press that her son is mentally ill.

‘He trusted me, but I could not get him to see a doctor,’ she said.

• Almost 30 tons of ground beef were recalled in Georgia, Michigan, and Ohio
• A sample of the meat contained the bacteria Shiga toxin-producing E. coli 
• READ MORE: Eyedrops recalled by FDA due to fears they contain deadly germs

By Emily Joshu Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Published: 12:08 EDT, 19 September 2023 | Updated: 14:48 EDT, 19 September 2023

Fears of a fresh Covid resurgence globally have been heightened since the discovery of a new virus variant called Pirola, described by experts as the ‘real deal’. 

Covid infection rates in Britain are already starting to shoot up.

Last week officials also confirmed Covid testing and community surveillance is set to be ‘scaled up’ ahead of this winter, after originally winding it down earlier this year. 

But to date, just four known Pirola cases have been confirmed in the UK.

So, what do experts predict will happen this winter? How deadly is the new variant? And could we even see another lockdown?  

Here MailOnline breaks down everything you need to know about what’s happening with Covid in the UK. 

Are cases on the rise? 

Yes. Covid cases in the UK are rising sharply — almost doubling in a month — just as the country heads into the autumn when the NHS gets busier.  

Data from the ZOE health study shows there were 93,432 new daily cases of symptomatic infection on September 2 — up from about 50,000 at the start of August.

The study, which is based on data from millions of users of the ZOE app, estimates there are around 1.17million people in the UK with the virus right now – roughly one in 57. 

But the estimated peak of the pandemic, in cases, was in late March 2022, where at one point about 4.9million people were thought to have the virus.

What is happening in hospitals? 

Hospital admissions and numbers of beds occupied by Covid patients had also been rising.

Latest NHS data shows daily Covid hospital admissions have risen almost 30 per cent since June, with a seven-day rolling average of 322 as of August 25, compared to just 251 on June 7. 

However, UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) data released on August 31 shows hospitalisations have plateaued slightly, after peaking at 379 on August 21. 

However, hospitalisation figures lag behind trends in infection rates due to the time it takes for someone to catch the virus and become ill enough to need NHS care. 

But current UK hospital admission levels are also nowhere near levels seen earlier in the pandemic, when a high of 4,100 admissions were logged per day. 

And, as time has worn on, fewer and fewer admissions are directly down to the virus. 

Instead, many patients are just coincidentally ill as they go to hospital for another condition. 

Are deaths due to Covid increasing? 

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also show that 74 people died due to the virus in the seven days to August 11.

It marks a 57.4 per cent increase on the previous week when 47 Covid deaths were logged — signalling the biggest surge in virus fatalities this year.

But it is a far cry from the darkest days of the pandemic, with the highest number of deaths recorded on a single day being January 19, 2021, when 1,490 fatalities were registered. 

In total, under 230,000 people have died in the UK with Covid listed as one of the causes on their death certificate since the start of the pandemic. 

This includes those whose death was directly caused by the virus as well as those where it contributed to their death from another health issue.

What will happen over winter? 

Experts predict Covid cases will continue to rise as the UK heads into the autumn, as people mix more indoors.

This could contribute to NHS pressures, with the season traditionally a busier period for the NHS than summer. 

Professor Paul Hunter, a respected infectious disease specialist at the University of East Anglia, told MailOnline today: ‘I do expect cases to increase as we move towards the end of the year, after all the other coronaviruses are very seasonal peaking November to February. 

‘But I doubt we will see hospitalisation rates close to what they were last winter. 

‘Each wave of Covid since Omicron has seen fewer people in hospital primarily because of Covid than the previous wave. 

‘But with winter adding to the pressure that may not hold for a winter peak.’ 

Some scientists have recommended a return of pandemic mitigation measures, including mask wearing, and increased ventilation because of the virus’ resurgence. 

Others have instead urged ministers to reconsider vaccine eligibility criteria, after the Government ditched plans last month to offer the jabs to under 65s this winter.

Dr Simon Clarke, a microbiologist from the University of Reading, told MailOnline: ‘People need to be sensible when going about their business over winter. 

‘If you’re feeling under the weather, what feels like a heavy cold to you might be very serious to someone else.’ 

He added: ‘Don’t go spreading germs around your workplace if you could easily work from home. 

‘Similarly, bosses need to be mindful that insisting on attendance every day when people could work from home might lead to much more sickness absence and lost productivity in the long run, when germs spread.’ 

Will there be a lockdown?

Experts agree it is unlikely Britain will see severe mitigations like lockdown again. 

In recent months the Government has also insisted it will never revert back to pandemic-era measures unless a doomsday variant emerges. 

Dr Clarke told MailOnline: ‘The chances of any sort of lockdown or tiered restrictions are vanishingly small. 

‘That would only be considered if there were an outbreak of a particularly novel, nasty form of flu or a variant of Covid that can overwhelm the immunity currently found in the population. 

‘While neither is impossible, they’re not worth people losing sleep over.’ 

Professor Hunter also told MailOnline: ‘I think the value of non-pharmaceutical interventions has fallen substantially since the early days of the pandemic. 

‘Early on the benefits from lockdowns were worth the harms but now I think any harm for lockdown would overshadow any benefits. 

‘Last year the ONS infection survey showed that wearing masks were associated with about a 20 to 30 per cent reduced risk of infection prior to Omicron but from February 2022 they had little benefit.’

He added: ‘I do not see any real value in extending the vaccination programme beyond what is currently planned. 

‘The value of the vaccine is now primarily in preventing severe disease, not in reducing transmission. 

‘Protection against infection for most of us only lasts a few months. People not in a risk group are unlikely to get severe disease and have already had multiple infections.’

Professor Lawrence Young, a virologist at Warwick University, also said: ‘I can’t see a situation where severe mitigation measures will be necessary or acceptable.

But he added: ‘Having said that, the unpredictability of Covid and its impact means that we can’t simply ignore this virus. 

‘Providing access to free lateral flow tests would be one way to encourage people to regularly test and, where necessary, self-isolate to prevent the virus from spreading. 

‘This measure alongside other mitigations — masking, ventilation, expansion of access to the Covid vaccine — would help us get through the winter by protecting the most vulnerable and preventing the other consequences of Covid.

What is Pirola and where did it come from? 

Pirola, scientifically called BA.2.86, is a mutated cousin of Omicron and was first detected in Israel and Denmark last month. 

It is one of more than 600 Omicron sub-variants currently circulating, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). 

Other sub-variants include Kraken (XBB.1.5) and Orthrus (CH.1.1). 

As with all viruses Covid constantly changes through mutation and sometimes these mutations result in new variants. 

Why is it called Pirola?

Like other new Covid variants, online virus trackers decided to call BA.2.86 something catchy following its discovery. 

They came up with ‘Pirola’.

It is understood the variant could be shortened to ‘Pi’, the letter which follows Omicron in the Greek alphabet – the system officials use to name new strains. 

This will only happen if WHO declare it a ‘variant of interest’. 

Is it more deadly than other variants?

There is currently no evidence that Pirola is any more of a threat than the dozens of strains that have come before it. 

Virologists have warned it is too early to reliably pinpoint if BA.2.86 has any new specific symptoms, as scientists are still analysing the recently discovered cases. 

Professor Francois Balloux from University College London said: ‘Based on the tiny number of BA.2.86 cases diagnosed to date there is no evidence for, but also no reason to expect, a significant shift in symptoms.’

Professor Young also added that a combination of immunity induced by previous infections, Covid vaccinations and ‘a combination of changes in the virus’ has seen Covid symptoms alter over the last three years. 

‘It’s much more like a cold now than when we first experienced Covid,’ he said.

However, he noted: ‘That doesn’t mean that those who are more vulnerable due to underlying conditions won’t suffer more severe symptoms if infected with BA.2.86.’

Early evidence suggests Pirola does not make people more seriously ill than other Omicron-descendant variants. 

In a weekly update published by the WHO on Friday, it also confirmed: ‘To date, no deaths have been reported to WHO among the cases detected with BA.2.86.’ 

It added: ‘The potential impact of the high number of mutations in BA.2.86 is presently unknown and is under assessment.’ 

Why has BA.2.86 sparked such attention?

This is because it has 35 mutations on its spike protein, the part of the virus that Covid vaccines are designed to target. 

Several of Pirola’s mutations have unknown functions but others are thought to help the virus evade the immune system. 

The genetic leap ‘is roughly of the same magnitude’ as seen between the initial Omicron variant and the previous Delta variant which the former replaced, the US’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Wednesday. 

Pirola has also sparked attention because of action the Government has taken in its wake.  

Concerns over the variant prompted the Department of Health and Social Care to last week announce that vaccinations for care home residents and vulnerable adults would start earlier than scheduled.

GPs and pharmacies are set to dish out the jabs from September 11, a full month earlier than originally planned.

Ministers said they had made the decision to reduce pressure on the health service while scientists rush to learn more about Pirola.

How can it be treated?  

According to the CDC, existing tests to detect and medications used to treat Covid — such as Paxlovid, Veklury, and Lagevrio — appear to be effective with BA.2.86.

But prevention from infection at all is still advised and Brits have been urged to test for the virus if they have symptoms to help reduce the chance of spreading it to other people, some of which may be vulnerable. 

Where can I get a Covid test? 

Covid tests are no longer available free of charge. 

Lateral flow tests can be purchased for £2 from pharmacies on the High Street or online.

PCR tests, which give a more definitive indication of a person’s infection status, cost around £50. 

Where has Pirola been spotted globally?

Alarm bells over Pirola first rung in mid-August after a prominent online virus-tracker spotted cases initially cropping up in Denmark. 

The discovery came just a day after the same lineage was detected in Israel. 

Since then, further cases have been reported in both countries. 

Cases have now also been confirmed in the USA, UK, France, South Africa, Portugal, Sweden and Canada.

Wastewater samples in Thailand, Switzerland and the US have already tested positive for the strain, suggesting Pirola is also in local circulation within the countries. 

This means the strain has now been detected in four separate continents.

How many UK Pirola cases are there? 

Four known cases have been confirmed by health officials to date.  

UKHSA officials originally confirmed one unidentified patient has tested positive for the strain while being treated in a London hospital. 

A second case in England and the first in Scotland were confirmed by UKHSA and Public Health Scotland (PHS) last week. 

The new variant was also found in wastewater testing in another Scottish NHS Health Board area, PHS said.  

During a meeting last week the UKHSA’s variant technical group confirmed the UK’s three known BA.2.86 cases at the time were identified through hospital testing and ‘have no known recent travel history’. 

The group is tasked with forecasting scenarios of Covid variants and producing assessments on the risk of emerging strains. 

‘The first UK case was mildly unwell and the second UK case — in England — did not have respiratory symptoms,’ they said. 

A third case in Scotland however was symptomatic. But officials noted there was no laboratory data available yet, with two of the UK samples currently ‘in culture’.

Public Health Scotland today also confirmed a second case had been identified through PCR testing. 

But details surrounding the fourth case have not yet been disclosed. 

Do the vaccines still work? 

Early expert analysis shows Pirola may have some ability to dodge the immunity offered by vaccines as well as that from prior infection. 

Last week, Steve Russell, Chief Delivery Officer and National Director for Vaccinations and Screening, NHS England said: ‘While it is difficult to predict the combined effect of the large number of mutations on severity, vaccine escape and transmissibility, expert advice is clear that this represents the most concerning new variant since Omicron first emerged.’ 

But even if the protection offered by vaccines or prior infection doesn’t work perfectly against the variant, immunity is likely to still hold up, with most Brits also having been exposed to one or more previous Omicron variant.

High levels of protection against the virus gave ministers in the UK the confidence to ditch all Covid measures last year as the country moved to living with the virus.

A highly mutated variant feared to be better at infecting vaccinated people has now been detected in a third state.

The BA.2.86 strain was picked up via wastewater testing in Ohio, the state’s health department announced Wednesday, after the variant was detected in Virginia and Michigan over the past week.

Further analysis by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is ongoing to confirm the Ohio sample is the new strain, also known as ‘Pirola’.

The CDC announced Wednesday it believes ‘the large number of mutations in this variant raises concerns of greater escape from existing immunity from vaccines and previous infections compared with other recent variants.’

It comes as Covid hospital admissions across the US jumped 22 percent in a week, the fifth week in a row they have increased. The CDC is now forecasting an acceleration in new hospitalizations over the coming month.

The CDC’s forecast replaces a previous projection that admissions would ‘remain stable or have an uncertain trend.’

The forecast, released Monday, suggests around 2,000 Americans are being admitted to the hospital each day, the vast majority of whom are over 65.

Hospitalizations are still three times lower than they were this time last year, and death rates are still very low.

Doctors on the ground are also saying that the illness is the most mild they’ve seen in Covid patients during the pandemic. 

Still, concerns about the new variants have led to masks creeping back into daily life.

A Kaiser Permanente hospital in Santa Rosa, California and Upstate Community Hospital in Syracuse, New York, which serve millions of Americans, have brought back mandates for doctors, nurses, patients and visitors. 

Ken Gordon, a spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health (ODH), told CBS News the department was ‘working with the CDC on further evaluation of the sample’ but added that the ‘preliminary detection has not [yet] been confirmed.’

Wastewater is tested as part of routine monitoring for the National Wastewater Surveillance System. 

Positive wastewater tests can pick up old cases, but may also signal new cases.

Since the pandemic was declared over, the number of people doing swab tests is very low, and only a handful of these are analyzed for variants.

The BA.2.86 strain is highly mutated, and is potentially more likely to infect vaccinated Americans, the CDC said yesterday. 

The stain has more than 30 mutations on its spike protein — the part the virus uses to infect people — that separates it from the currently dominant strains, which is feared to make it harder to recognize for the immune systems of vaccinated or previously infected people.

It may also be better at causing illness in people who’ve recently recovered from a Covid infection.

‘The large number of mutations in this variant raises concerns of greater escape from existing immunity from vaccines and previous infections compared with other recent variants,’ the CDC said in its risk assessment of BA.2.86, which has also been dubbed the ‘Pirola’ variant.

However, the agency said it was too soon to know if this will cause more severe infection than other variants and appears confident in its assessment that levels of immunity in the US population will still offer broad protection.

‘Nearly all the US population has antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 from vaccination, previous infection, or both, and it is likely that these antibodies will continue to provide some protection against severe disease from this variant,’ the CDC said.

DailyMail.com revealed Tuesday that the variant had been detected in a patient in Virginia, which was the second official case after a resident in Michigan was diagnosed with it last week.

However, the CDC said that because so few swabs are being analyzed now, the strain is likely much more widespread than the official figures indicate.

And Covid positivity rates – the share of swabs that come back positive – have nearly doubled between July and August.

The CDC said the current increase in US hospitalizations is not likely driven by BA.2.86. because of the lag it takes for people to catch and then fall sick with Covid.

This new BA.2.86 strain is believed to be descended from the BA.2 ‘stealth’ variant that surged globally early last year, which itself is a spinoff of the original Omicron strain.

The updated Covid vaccines – due to be rolled out this fall – are targeted towards strains descending from the XBB Omicron subvariant, which have become the dominant type globally.

The CDC said researchers are evaluating the effectiveness of the updated shots, which are anticipated to reduce severe disease and hospitalizations.

Compared to other strains descended from the Omicron subvariant, BA.2.86 has many more mutations.

The CDC compared the differences between it and its likely ancestor BA.2 as being similar to the difference between the Delta and Omicron variants.

‘The large number of mutations in this variant raises concerns of greater escape from existing immunity from vaccines and previous infections compared with other recent variants,’ the CDC said.

‘For example, one analysis of mutations suggests the difference may be as large as or greater than that between BA.2 and XBB.1.5, which circulated nearly a year apart.’

‘However, virus samples are not yet broadly available for more reliable laboratory testing of antibodies, and it is too soon to know the real-world impacts on immunity.’

Covid infections in the US have nearly doubled in the past month amid the rise of two highly-mutated variants, official data suggests.

The test positivity rate in the US – the share of swabs that come back positive – has soared from one in 15 in the week ending July 15 to one in eight by August 12, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.

It means test positivity is at its highest level in more than a year. In several states, including Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana, one in six Covid swabs came back positive in the most recent week.

Because regular Americans are no longer testing en masse like they were at earlier points in the pandemic – just 40,000 swabs are being reported to the CDC each week – it has become more difficult to spot new outbreaks early. 

But all metrics indicate infections are rising rapidly. Along with the rise in positivity, hospitalization rates for Covid patients have also risen for five weeks in a row – though they still remain near-historic lows.

The rise in cases is thought to be driven by several factors, including the emergence of two highly transmissible variants, the waning of vaccine immunity and the beginning of the school year as more people gather in large groups and mingle, doctors told DailyMail.com.

Testing positivity rates are reported to the CDC by The National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS), which receives its reported number of weekly tests from labs that have chosen to send their data to the surveillance system. 

The data shows that positivity soared from 6.7 percent in the week ending July 15 to 12.2 percent in the week ending August 12.

The two new variants, EG.5, or Eris, and BA.X, or Pirola, have been detected in several countries around the globe and in the US recently. 

These variants are highly mutated and thought to better at avoiding vaccine and natural immunity to cause infection.

Experts estimate Eris could account for as many as half of Covid infections, and two cases of Pirola were just recently detected last week in Michigan and in Virginia on Tuesday. 

Dr Rajendram Rajnarayanan of the New York Institute of Technology campus in Jonesboro, Arkansas, told DailyMail.Com the clinical severity and symptoms of the variants remain largely unknown as the US is only selectively testing for variants in a small sample of positive tests in hospitals or airports. 

But while more and more people contract Covid and employers may have to deal with the inconvenience of employees missing work, or students may have to make up school work, Eris and Pirola are not expected to cause a deadly wave like in the past.  

Dr. Thomas Moore, an infectious disease physician in Wichita, Kansas, told DailyMail.com while the US is seeing a rise in cases, ‘they are not severe like past variants’, which put a strain on hospitals and healthcare systems.

The new strains are ‘absolutely’ spreading faster due to the very fact that ‘variants emerge because they’re more transmissible’ and have evolved to be more contagious, Dr Moore explained. 

However, he concurs with most experts in saying there are no signs the strains are more severe or dangerous. 

He said symptoms of the strains could be similar to those of the common cold or the flu, but also cautioned while it is rare to die from the common cold or flu, Covid still has the potential to be deadly. 

Former FDA commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb said he was concerned about the rise in Covid cases, but there was no evidence the variants are deadlier than previous strains and he doesn’t believe the variants are more likely to cause severe infections or more deaths.

‘Certainly, at this point, it doesn’t appear to be more pathogenic, so it doesn’t appear to be more dangerous [than other variants]’, Dr Gottlieb said. 

Additionally, health experts have previously told DailyMail.com the emergence of the variants ‘is not surprising’ and said it was too early to panic. 

They reassured despite increased transmissibility, the new variants were unlikely to reverse years of immunity gained throughout the more than three years of the pandemic. 

From July 15 to August 12, hospitalizations rose from 7,175 to 12,613, though they still remain three times lower than this time last year. 

Additionally, Dr Marc Elieson, a medical director at Baylor Scott and White Health in Texas, said earlier this week his colleagues are seeing Covid patients with less severe illness than at any point during the pandemic.

‘What viruses and other organisms do over time [is] they become more contagious but have less power to kill and to hurt people,’ he told FOX44.

Despite a rise in cases and hospitalizations, weekly deaths have dropped. In the week ending July 15, there were 484 deaths, compared to 251 deaths in the week ending Aug. 12.

Furthermore, CDC data shows just one percent of intensive care unit beds are occupied by Covid-19 patients and approximately 1.5 percent of all hospital beds are occupied by Covid patients, as well.

This could be because the variants do not produce more severe cases and more than 95 percent of Americans have some level of antibodies against Covid-19 due to vaccines, booster shots and previous infections, which most experts think is sufficient to keep future infections near cold- or flu-like symptoms.

While experts say the rising transmissibility isn’t cause for alarm yet, their assurances haven’t stopped calls for mitigation efforts and experts from recommending the public begin wearing masks again. 

A college in Atlanta became the first institution to mandate masks for students and staff just days before classes began. 

The new mandate will require students and staff to wear masks in hallways and lecture halls for at least two weeks amid the recent uptick. 

Additionally, government physicians and public health officials in Seattle called for face coverings to once again be required in healthcare settings. 

Most recently, Lionsgate, a film studio in Santa Monica, California, reintroduced mask mandates at its offices after several employees tested positive for Covid-19. The studio also encouraged its employees to test themselves before coming to work. Lionsgate said the rules for its nearly 5,000 employees would be in place ‘until further notice’.

• Researchers tested the effect of a prostate cancer drug called proxalutamide
• The team found the drug limited the number of cells the Covid virus invaded

By Eve Simmons

Published: 17:55 EDT, 19 August 2023 | Updated: 18:12 EDT, 19 August 2023

A new Covid variant that could spark a fresh wave of infections has been detected in the US, health officials say — as they begin to monitor the mutant strain.

Researchers tracking the variant — dubbed BA.X, or BA.2.86 — say a case has been detected in a Covid sample in Michigan. 

The discovery comes less than a day after experts told DailyMail.com the virus was ‘probably’ already on American soil and likely spreading quickly worldwide.

A total of six cases in four countries — the US, Israel, Denmark and the UK — have been detected to date, with more cases likely to be detected in the coming days.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday it was now tracking the mutant strain, while the World Health Organization (WHO) classified BA.2.86 as a ‘variant under monitoring’ due to the large number of mutations it carries.

Announcing the case in the US, the CDC said it was ‘tracking’ a new lineage of the virus that causes Covid.

‘This lineage is named BA.2.86 and has been detected in the United States, Denmark and Israel. 

‘CDC is gathering more information and will share more about this lineage as we learn it.’

It added: ‘As we learn more about BA.2.86, CDC’s advice on protecting yourself from Covid remains the same.’

Alarm bells over the strain were first rung earlier this week because of the 30 mutations it was carrying.

Its detection quickly prompted calls from some for face masks to return, while others said it was ‘reminiscent’ of the early days of the Omicron outbreak in 2021.

However, some experts sought to calm fears saying they did not believe lockdown-era restrictions would be needed.

While several cases of BA.X. were detected in four countries, because of delays in testing and reporting, it is likely a flurry of more cases will be reported in the coming days.

The new lineage ‘harkens back to an earlier branch’ of the virus, explained Dr S. Wesley Long, medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist.

He said it remains to be seen whether BA.X will be able to out-compete other strains of the virus or has any advantage in escaping immune responses from prior infection or vaccination.

Early analysis indicates the new variant ‘will have equal or greater escape from antibodies elicited by pre-Omicron and first-generation Omicron variants,’ Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center said in a report Thursday.

Bloom’s report notes the most likely scenario is that BA.2.86 is less transmissible than current dominant variants, so it may not spread widely, but more sequencing data is needed.  

‘My biggest concern would be that it could cause a bigger spike in cases than what we have seen in recent waves,’ Dr. Long said. ‘The boosters will still help you fight off Covid in general.’ 

On Thursday, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist and lead for the Covid response at the WHO, cautioned there is very limited information available on the strain and says it needs monitoring due to its large number of mutations.

Surveillance and sequencing is ‘critical’ to detect new variants and track known ones, she added.

The new detection in Michigan comes as Covid hospital admissions in the US rise 15 percent in a week, although they are increasing from record lows, to 10,000 admissions every seven days.

Deaths remain low, however, with about 480 now being recorded every seven days.

Earlier this week, former FDA commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb warned Covid cases were tracking upwards in the US. He said he was particularly concerned about the South, which was seeing the fastest rise in admissions.

This comes amid the emergence of another Covid variant — EG.5 — which is already dominant in the US and spreading quickly.

Scientists highlight, however, that there is no sign EG.5 is more likely to cause severe disease and death than previous strains.

Speaking on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Dr Gottlieb said: ‘There’s nothing to suggest that this particular strain [EG.5] circulating in the United States right now is more pathogenic than prior variants.’

Monitoring shows the variant is currently behind nearly one in five cases in the US, but Dr Gottlieb says the true number is likely nearer half. 

Last week the WHO labeled the strain a ‘variant of interest’ because it was spreading so rapidly.

But it added that a more comprehensive analysis of this strain was also needed in order to evaluate the risk it posed. 

Two people in Michigan have been diagnosed with swine flu after attending county fairs, health officials confirmed today.

The patients – whose infections are not linked to one another – caught different strains at separate fairs last month, where they were exposed to infected pigs.

Both sufferers – whose identities have not been revealed – experienced mild illness, and there is no sign they spread it to others. 

But the infections come amid an unprecedented influenza outbreak in animals that has many experts fearful of a spillover into people. 

The first patient, a Lapeer County resident, was working at the Oakland County Fair, which took place at the Springfield Oaks County Park in Davisburg between July 7-16.

They were infected with an H3 variant of swine flu which was confirmed via a test carried out by state health officials on July 26.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tested a sample from the patient which came back inconclusive, which it said was likely due to the sample not containing enough virus.

The second patient attended the Tuscola County Fair in Caro, about 50 miles from Davisburg, between July 23 and July 29.

The patient was confirmed to have a H1 strain of the virus, which is typically more mild than H3 types. 

Neither patient required hospitalization, and both were treated with flu antivirals. They are now recovering.

The CDC advised people to take general precautions to limit the spread of swine flu, including not eating or drinking while pigs are present, avoiding contact with pigs that appear sick, and washing hands with soap and water before and after contact with pigs.

Flu viruses can spread from pigs to people, but it’s rare, with only a handful of spillover events occurring in the US each year.

Like any flu, when infected pigs cough, sneeze or even just breathe, droplets with pieces of flu virus in them can spread through the air. 

If these land in a person’s nose and mouth, or are breathed in, they can become infected with swine flu.

Swine flu surges in pigs around the fall months, raising the risk of the disease spilling over into humans.

People who become infected tend to suffer similar symptoms to seasonal flu, including fever, cough, runny nose and body aches.

But cases are normally mild and clear up on their own in a few weeks. There is little risk of death.

Scientists say, however, that children under five, people over 65, pregnant women and those with underlying health conditions are more at risk of complications if they become infected.

A major swine flu outbreak was triggered in 2009 after a mutated version of the virus — strain H1N1 — spilled over into humans.

In the end, about one in five people globally became infected. For the US, there were estimated to have been about 60 million cases alongside 275,000 hospitalizations and 12,000 deaths.

But the case fatality rate — the proportion of patients that died from the disease — was thought to have been around 0.03 percent. For comparison, when Covid first struck, it had a fatality rate of up to three percent.

Michigan‘s House of Representatives has passed a hate speech bill, known as HB 4474, which criminalizes causing someone to feel threatened by words, including the misusing of their pronouns, with the possibility of a hefty fine or even jail time.

The bill introduces hate crime penalties for causing someone to ‘feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened,’ with ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity or expression’ included as protected classes. 

Offenders could face up to five years in prison for such a felony offense or a $10,000 fine.

It is part of a continues effort by Democrats in the state to advance a pro-LGBTQ+ agenda in their first months in power. 

The proposed legislation aims to replace the existing Ethnic Intimidation Act and extends protection against intimidation.

Critics argue that the bill poses a threat to First Amendment rights and lacks clarity in defining ‘harassment’, leaving it open to subjective interpretation. 

The bill reads as follows: ‘Intimidate’ means a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened.’

If passed, penalties would be based on how the supposed victim and court ‘feel’ about a particular matter. 

What constitutes as being deemed ‘intimidation and harassment’ would be up to the interpretation of the listener and a local prosecutor.

Critics argue that the legislation could infringe on free speech rights and undermine the principles of due process. 

Michigan Democrats have made it a priority to further protect LGBTQ+ people since they took control of all levels of state government this year.

In March, lawmakers codified LGBTQ+ protections into the state’s civil rights law, permanently outlawing discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the state. 

This new hate speech bill passed in the Democrat-controlled House 59-50 and will now move to the Michigan State Senate (also Democrat controlled) for further consideration.

If approved, it would expected to be signed into law by the Democratic state Governor Gretchen Whitmer.     

Distinguished Professor Emeritus William Wagner, an expert in constitutional law and former federal judge warns that the legislation could be used to silence conservative viewpoints and would oppose the due process required by the Constitution. 

‘Make no mistake about it. Those advocating for this legislation will wield these policies as a weapon capable of destroying conservative expression or viewpoints grounded in the sacred,’ Wagner told The Daily Wire. 

‘One merely needs to look at the scores of cases brought against schools, churches, businesses, and individuals around our country. Proponents use these laws to silence and financially cripple those who dare to adhere to a different viewpoint and oppose their agenda.’ 

Meanwhile, Republican Representative Angela Rigas shared her concerns about the bill targeting conservatives who speak against radical gender ideology. 

‘The state of Michigan is now explicitly allowing the gender delusion issue to be used as a ‘protected class.’ This opens up numerous issues when it comes to the courts and the continued weaponization of the system against conservatives,’ Rigas said.

‘We saw similar concerns when they wanted to pass blocks on ‘conversion’ therapy. It seems Dems want to be in the business of telling people how to think. We are determined to keep choice and opinion a free choice despite those efforts.’ 

Rigas suggested that conservatives would have to rely on the courts to challenge the legislation such is the lack of Republican influence in Michigan’s branches of power. 

‘While my colleagues are introducing great bills to counter the infringements to our freedoms, there is no current way to fix these issues without higher courts becoming involved,’ she explained. 

Earlier this week Michigan lawmakers gave final approval to legislation banning so-called conversion therapy for minors.

The legislation would prohibit mental health professionals from engaging youths in the scientifically discredited practice of trying to convert people who are LGBTQ+ to heterosexuality and traditional gender expectations.

The Michigan Senate approved the ban on a 21-15 vote – with one Republican siding with Democrats – late Tuesday after the state House previously approved the legislation. 

It now awaits final approval by Gov. Whitmer, who has previously called the therapy a ‘dangerous practice.’