Posted on 12/28/2021 10:05:12 PM PST by nickcarraway
A virus cannot target a specific person regardless of vaccination status. "Immune evasion," along with increased transmissibility, are reasons why omicron spreads.
After the omicron COVID-19 variant was first reported to the World Health Organization by South Africa on Nov. 24, the variant was quickly discovered around the world, including in the United States.
Since the emergence of the COVID-19 variant, there has been speculation that vaccinated individuals are more susceptible to catching omicron than unvaccinated individuals.
According to Google Trends data, “omicron in vaccinated” saw a spike in searches beginning on Dec. 5. There are hundreds of tweets that claim the variant “targets” the vaccinated versus the unvaccinated (see examples here, here, here, here and here).
THE QUESTION
Can the omicron variant specifically target a vaccinated person?
THE SOURCES
Dr. Paul Bienasz, a virologist with Rockefeller University Dr. Saralyn Mark, former senior medical advisor at the White House and current lead COVID-19 spokesperson for the American Medical Women’s Association Centers for Disease Control and Prevention World Health Organization
THE ANSWER
This is false.
No, COVID-19 variants - including omicron - cannot target vaccinated people.
The CDC and WHO say being vaccinated provides greater protection against severe illness and hospitalization and helps reduce the likelihood of someone spreading COVID-19, but it does not eliminate the risk entirely.
WHAT WE FOUND
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Nov. 26 designated omicron a variant of concern because preliminary evidence suggests it may reinfect people more easily than other variants.
Since then, health professionals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the WHO have recommended individuals should get an additional booster shot to help stave off the variant.
A variant can’t specifically target a vaccinated person over an unvaccinated person because that’s just not how viruses work.
Dr. Paul Bienasz told VERIFY omicron is a “product of viral evolution.”
“So this virus has been passing from human-to-human to more humans, and in some individuals persisting in those individuals for a significant amount of time. And over time, what happens is that viruses mutate, they diversify, they do so in a random way,” he said.
Bienasz explained the mutations become smarter at evading antibodies, and the antibodies provided by the vaccine “are the very same antibodies that omicron would have previously encountered and evolved to resist.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) refers to this as “immune evasion,” and this, combined with increased transmissibility, are the reasons why omicron is spreading so rapidly.
Further, there is not enough evidence from the CDC or WHO to support claims vaccinated individuals are more likely to become infected with the omicron variant. The CDC says they are still collecting data on how well vaccines and medications are working against omicron.
WHO told VERIFY in an email: “There are still limited data on the clinical severity of omicron. More data are needed to understand the severity profile and how severity is impacted by vaccination and pre-existing immunity.”
According to the CDC, people who were unvaccinated have a greater risk of testing positive for COVID-19 and a greater risk of dying from COVID-19 than people who were fully vaccinated.
Studies have already shown that boosters are effective. When a person gets a booster shot, it essentially provides them an additional safety net against COVID-19 variants, Bienasz told VERIFY.
“People who have had two mRNA vaccine doses, and then later had a booster dose or third dose, their levels of immunity begin to approach those very high levels of immunity that we've seen in people who have been both infected, and vaccinated,” he said, of being more immune to omicron. “Again, their antibodies seem to be much better able to deal with variants such as omicron. And I think this is a very, very powerful argument in favor of everybody getting a booster at this time.”
Dr. Saralyn Mark told VERIFY the reason people might think omicron targets the vaccinated is directly related to vaccine hesitancy or resistance, and individuals really need to think about the big picture - the purpose of a vaccine.
“We have vaccines to decrease your chances for hospitalization and death. And we know that that has been quite effective. But we have seen in our hospitals that over 80% of those who are in hospitals are generally those who have not been vaccinated. With the omicron variant, this is a variant that has well over 50 different mutations and may evade parts of our immune system,” Mark said. “But what we have seen is that those who've been vaccinated tend to have mild, more mild cases. It is extremely important that we use our other public health measures as well, such as masking social distancing, hand washing and ventilation.”
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What does that even mean?
No it can’t but.. vaxxettes have a greater chance of catching the cronvercytis. Just saying.
The type of tinkering that is being done with people’s immune systems with the mRNA experiment is likely not helpful to their ability to fight off various pathogens. It is much more likely that it weakens their resistance to many agents. This “fact check” is complete BS.
Also. Maybe it can’t. But as the recently released James Bond movie suggests the “nanos” can cross jump humans with out harming them as a means of transmission to target specific individuals as well as other desirable targets and ethics groups. . . But it is just a james bond movie...or is it?
Who ever thought it could? Why would anyone feel the need to write this?
Omicron is an anagram for moronic. Also Evian (the water) is naive backwards.
My daughter and I both have covid right now as we speak (I took a home test)—and we both were vaxxed. Neither boosted, though. I had 2 days of fever; she’s on her 1st day.
We are both doing OK—the weird thing for me, and the “novel” virus part for me, is that the virus is attacking my eyes. Sore this morning, kind of watery this afternoon, like allergies.
But so far the virus is leaving our lungs alone—praise God.
Why do you keep posting your crackpot theory? You don’t understand what mRNA does with the immune system and all you do is needlessly scare people.
That’s the only symptom my husband had in March 2020 when I was sick with what was presumably Covid. It wasn’t pink eye but his eyes were watery and felt scratchy and irritated for about a week. Supposedly it was a listed Covid symptom in the beginning of the pandemic, before ppl started reporting a loss of taste/smell along with other strange symptoms.
“News” to the stupid people (Read MSNBC, CNN, liberals, socialists, commies.) “Duh”, from us informed and intelligent Deplorables that hid the flag we planted on Mars to make you look st00pid.
Nobody who is against this vaccine is saying “omnicrom” is targeting vaccinated ppl. What we ARE saying is that the vaccine weakens ppl’s immune systems which then allows the virus to get a foothold into their bodies. The media is trying to make us look like loons again just like they did with the “injecting hydroxychloroquine” meme.
So at least 10,000 deaths from this vaccine is fine with you? Please enlighten us as to which prior vaccine had so many adverse events associated with it.
Good luck and comfort to both you and your daughter.
The Covid virus is similar to the vaccines in that both potentially effect every person in a slightly different manner. I don’t put anyone down for doing what they think is necessary for themselves and their loved ones.
Matters not if I agree with it. Much remains unknown.
Thanks. I looked it up and “sore eyes” was the #1 covid eye-related symptom. It’s definitely what’s felt the most. . .alien. . .novel about this “cold” to me. Other than the sore eyes and then watery eyes—I definitely have irritated eyes— it’s felt like a normal cold. Nice to hear I’m not alone!
I’m glad I kept my sense of smell and taste—that would be a huge loss.
People who want to confuse the idiots of the world would write this. Evil..
That’s exactly right. They didn’t say vaxd people aren’t more susceptible to it.
Add me to your made up statistic. I haven't been sick for the past eight months since I got the second vaccination. My Wife has had four specific diagnosed autoimmune related diseases or syndromes since the first one in 1973. She had both vaccines and has not been sick with anything either.
I'll give you one thing, it hasn't cured her eczema, but wait, it wasn't supposed to.
Weaken's people's immune system my foot.
What theory are you speaking of? I have no idea. The only crackpot in this discussion is most definitely you. I am very grateful to those who run the site for allowing us to go back a long ways into each of our posting histories. You have embarrassed yourself by posting nonsense more times than I can count.
You don't understand what mRNA does with the immune system
No one knows for sure what the experimental mRNA therapies are doing to the immune systems of people with widely varying responses to it... least of all you. It is crazy to believe that a one size fits all solution is helpful to everyone.
Your blind advocacy for something which you have no actual concept of is an irresponsible action.
all you do is needlessly scare people
Are you scared? That is too bad, but I have had absolutely nothing to do with that. I have not been scaring anyone. Unlike you my position has been from the beginning that this situation has been greatly exaggerated by various means. Data has been collection has been incentivized in ways that intentionally exaggerate the situation. Pointing this out is the opposite of the fear mongering that you have been engaging in.
The “vaccines” were designed to fight a pathogen that essentially no longer exists. It is crazy to believe that it is helpful with a “variant” such as Omicron which is known not to even be a direct descendant of the original engineered Fauci/CCP gain of function version of Covid.
Robert Malone a pioneer of mRNA technology as used in these “vaccines” who understands their potential and limitations far greater than you ever will... has said repeatedly that governments are refusing to tell people about the short and long-term risks of the experimental shots and refusing to tell them the truth about what's actually happening. I have been following him and professional virologists for months. The predictions and observations that they have made have proved to be very accurate.
Please excuse the typos. It is time for me to go to bed.
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