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If the bee disappeared from the surface of the globe, man would only have four years to live: without bees, there is no pollination, no grass, no animals, no men ”.
Albert Einstein
The University Hospital Institute of Marseille has identified a new variant, named after the center’s own acronym, IHU, which has a total of 46 mutations in relation to the main SARS-CoV-2 virus.
It is one of the two derivatives of B.1.640 –which had been located at the end of September in the Republic of the Congo–, which was detected for the first time in a traveler from Cameroon, who infected 12 people.
These first cases were identified in the town of Forcalquier, in the department of Alpes de Haute Provence.
Experts consider that the IHU variant contains a peculiar element in one of its mutations, since it is associated with the possible increase in the transmission of the virus, superior to Omicron.
The global economic recovery has been held back by the pandemic, and the mutation of the virus is just one of the risks that could cloud the economic outlook.
Although the global economy recovered vigorously in 2021, it lost steam in the second half due to new pandemic outbreaks, bottlenecks in supply chains, labor shortages and slow vaccine deployment. , particularly in low-income developing countries.
Variants of covid could derail the recovery, so the majority of the world’s population needs to be vaccinated quickly.
Although the pandemic continues to pose a great risk to global growth, it is not the only threat that will keep economies on alert this year.
Last November, markets woke up to a new variant of the coronavirus, Omicron, which had been reported in southern Africa, a highly transmissible variant that sent financial and commodity markets plummeting.
Governments tightened restrictions to hold off the arrival of Ómicron in their territories, which, while more transmissible than the Delta variant, seemed less deadly than its predecessor and would not evade the immunity produced by existing vaccines and treatments.
If Covid-19 were to have a prolonged impact, it could erode global GDP by $ 5.3 trillion (€ 4.6 trillion) over the next five years.
Disruptions in supply chains have played a critical role in stalling the global recovery. Shipping bottlenecks, coupled with container shortages, and a vigorous pickup in demand once pandemic-related restrictions were relaxed, have prompted producers to search for components and raw materials everywhere.
The automotive sector has been one of the most affected, with production falls in the Eurozone, including Germany. Automakers have cut production amid shortages of inputs, especially semiconductors.
Although there are signs that shortages have lessened, with shipping costs falling and chip exports rising, experts predict that supply bottlenecks will weigh on growth well into 2022.
Shortages of raw materials and inputs, along with rising energy prices, have pushed inflation in the eurozone and the United States to worrying highs, heightening fears that central banks will be forced to prematurely raise prices. interest rates to face price increases.
