‘Completely new’ COVID strains possible in winter: EU drug agency Existing vaccines and adaptive ones should protect people from serious illness and death, the EU agency says. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022...vid-strains-possible-in-winter-eu-drug-agency
Reply to your posts are inline below: But best protection does not equal impenetrable immunity? Sounds like a crabwalk from when Covid vaccines first came out at a touted 99.4% effectiveness. To be fair, a vaccination for a particular strain can be highly effective for a long time against that specific strain. Unfortunately, Covid rapidly creates new strains. For all the vaccinated and the people with natural immunity we still have a pandemic. Nature - 1, Humans - 0. At least Covid has or nearing the point where it need no longer be considered novel. As such, most future Covid infections may cause less health issues among the general population. As far the elderly and their age related immune system decline, respiratory viruses have caused pneumonia throughout history, often leading to death. Get the vaccination if you want to, but don’t get lax with other precautions including self-isolating when infected in our virus dominated, pandemic world. The quote above supports by post immediately above it. Well, mice or rabbits are often used in medical experiments. How hard is it for these small animals to get their lower lungs affected by Covid? Oh, wait. They are talking about “Animal models”. My bad. What could go wrong there? [QUOTE="gwb-trading, post: 5656478, member: 9113"]It comes down to genetics—the virus trading one quality for another as it strives to spread to more and more hosts. “The trick for the virus is to find a way to escape immunity while still maintaining the ability to infect new people efficiently,” Jerome explained.[/QUOTE] It comes down to genetics? This works both ways, including considering the genetics of human hosts, right? Other than immune compromised individuals, some individuals draw the genetic short-straw when it comes to certain diseases, Covid included. Almost two years ago, a study was conducted that showed certain human genetic profiles had predictive value in severe Covid outcomes. It there a point that should accept, at least to a degree, “Survival of the fittest” in our world that some consider to be over crowded? We seem to be reaching the end of new useful Covid-related information. Indeed, many probably have felt this way for a long time now. At what point does repeating the same underlying themes over and over again becomes a “Dry heave” of big pharma marketing? Guess shareholders, lobbyists, and shills have to be paid. Right?
New Omicron offshoot BA.4.6 evades protection of Evusheld’s antibodies, study finds https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/07/health/evusheld-antibodies-omicron-ba-4-6/index.html The antibodies in Evusheld, the only therapy available to protect people with reduced immune function against Covid-19, may lose their punch against the BA.4.6 subvariant, a new study shows. BA.4.6 is an offshoot of the BA.4 subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant. Only a couple of mutations separate it from its predecessor, but it is slowly gaining ground in the United States, even against BA.5, which continues to dominate transmission. BA.4.6 is now causing an estimated 7% to 10% of new Covid-19 infections, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is particularly prevalent in the Midwest, where it is causing an estimated 18% of new infections. Evusheld is a combination of two long-lasting, lab-created antibodies made by AstraZeneca. When given every six months, it can prevent a Covid-19 infection in people who may not get enough protection from vaccines because their immune system can’t respond effectively to them. The CDC estimates that about 7 million Americans could benefit from the protection of Evusheld. This vital therapy has been holding up well against new coronavirus variants. But in new tests, Dr. David Ho, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University, found that although this subvariant doesn’t seem to bind to our cells more easily than others, it does appear to evade the ability of some antibodies to neutralize it, including those in Evusheld. “We found that that combination antibody no longer works against this new variant, and that is the only antibody combination that’s approved for prevention of Covid-19,” Ho told CNN. Ho and his team have worked throughout the pandemic to quickly characterize new variants to help the US refine its treatment strategy. His latest research has been shared as a preprint, in advance of peer review. Ho said he has also sent his results to the National Institutes of Health and the US Food and Drug Administration. The FDA said in a statement that it “is working with sponsors of all currently authorized therapeutics to assess the activity against any global SARS-CoV-2 variant(s) of interest and is committed to communicating with the public as we learn more.” AstraZeneca said that the antibodies in Evusheld work together and that testing them separately may not reflect how the therapy performs in the real world. “There is limited relevance to studies that evaluate the Evusheld component antibodies individually vs. in combination or that attempt to recreate versions of tixagevimab and cilgavimab vs authentic Evusheld. The data for the individual Evusheld antibodies are not representative of the synergistic effect of the combination as administered in the Evusheld label. Antibodies recreated in a laboratory based on publicly available information are not an accurate replication of Evusheld,” a spokesperson said in a statement. Ho says that he did test the combination of the antibodies and that he’s confident in his results. He points out that his team’s conclusions echo the results of similar tests performed by scientists in China. In the meantime, Ho says, people who are immunocompromised need to know that Evusheld may not be as protective as it once was. “Just be aware that BA.4.6 is going to be resistant, and it is gaining ground on BA.5. So folks who are immunocompromised in general should be more cautious,” he said. Ho says that based on his research, only one monoclonal antibody – bebtelovimab – continues to be effective against the circulating variants. “Now we’ll be left, essentially, with one antibody,” he says. “Everything else is gone.” He said the FDA has been very focused on making sure the Covid-19 vaccines are updated, but he worries that it hasn’t continued to keep antibody treatments current. “There are millions of people who have compromises to the immune system, and they would be running out of options right now,” he said.
BA.2.75.2: the new Omicron strain showing a worrying ability to evade immunity The strain has two mutations that make it even more adept at locking on to human cells Researchers in China say it has an unprecedented growth advantage https://www.scmp.com/news/china/sci...omicron-strain-showing-worrying-ability-evade
Omicron subvariants getting better at evading antibodies Scientists have been increasingly focusing on the BA.2.75.2, BF.7 (also known as BA.5.2.1.7) and BQ.1.1 variants in recent weeks. https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/article-718707
These particular sub-variants are nasty little boogers. They're able to navigate around the last vaccine dosage of those vaccinated before the summer. Just as important, although they cause mild illness for most...they cause severe Covid illness for some that are vaccinated or not vaccinated including for those as reinfection. It's one of the main reasons why some Covidiots think vaccines are causing Covid illnesses when in fact vaccinated people are having breakthrough Covid infections to these sub-variants that are similar to the illnesses of those not vaccinated are getting in their Covid infection. wrbtrader
Omicron BA.4.6 makes up nearly 13% of COVID variants circulating in U.S. - CDC https://www.reuters.com/world/us/om...covid-variants-circulating-us-cdc-2022-10-04/ The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday estimated that nearly 13% of the circulating coronavirus variants in the United States were of the BA.4.6 subvariant of Omicron, as of the week ended Oct. 1. The latest data showed BA.4.6, which has been slowly rising in the last few weeks, made up nearly 22% of the cases in the region that includes the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. n the week ended Oct. 1, the BA.4.6 subvariant made up 12.8% of total COVID cases in the U.S., compared with the 11.9% reported for the week ended Sept. 24. Omicron subvariants BA.5 and BA.4 were estimated to make up 81.3% and 1.1%, respectively, of the circulating variants in the U.S., the data showed. The United States has begun a new COVID vaccination campaign with Omicron-tailored boosters from Pfizer /BioNtech and Moderna (MRNA.O), which are likely to be effective against the BA.4.6 subvariant as well. As of Sept. 28, 7.6 million Americans had received the updated boosters, which represents only 3.5% of the 215.5 million people aged 12 or older who are eligible to receive the shots as they have completed their primary vaccination series.
Follow the sCinEc! Oops, I misspelled Money. Ah, the fate of vaxzis. Sad, but karmically, somehow, meaningful.
From BQ.1.1 to XBB and beyond: How the splintering of Omicron variants could shape Covid’s next phase https://www.statnews.com/2022/10/06/bq11-omicron-variants-splintering-covid-next-phase/
Various strains of Omicron are all evolving common capabilities & mutations that make them the most infectious to humans. Aligned with Darwin's theory effectively. As Omicron mutates wildly the virus shows first signs of convergent evolution https://newatlas.com/science/omicron-mutates-convergent-evolution-original-antigenic-sin/