Posted on 07/19/2022 7:02:50 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Experts say the transmission rates of the BA.2.75 variant are showing an exponential increase, particularly in India, where it is competing with BA.5.
As the U.S. battles the rapidly spreading BA.5 omicron subvariant, a new mutant that could compete with the highly contagious strain is on the horizon.
Scientists say the variant – called BA.2.75 – may be able to evade immunity from vaccines and prior infection. The latest mutant has been spotted in several distant states in India and appears to be spreading faster than other variants there. It’s unclear whether it could cause more serious disease than other omicron variants, including the prominent BA.5.
Tufts Medical Center's Dr. Shira Doron, Boston Medical Center's Dr. Sabrina Assoumou and Brigham and Women's Hospital's Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes explained whether we should worry about the new variant during NBC10 Boston's latest "COVID Q&A" discussion.
Experts say the transmission rates of the BA.2.75 variant are showing an exponential increase, particularly in India. It makes up about a quarter of the cases there and seems to be competing with BA.5 as the dominant strain. Some health officials expect cases will continue to grow, but how the subvariant might impact the U.S. remains to be seen.
"We often look to see what happens overseas to try to foreshadow what is going to happen here. These particular subvariants have had very different behaviors," Assoumou said. "There's been a different mix of infection-acquired immunity versus vaccine-acquired immunity, so it's a little hard to know how it's going to behave here in the U.S."
The population in India has a different immunity than those in the U.S., Boston doctors said, because different vaccines were given at various times and different variants circulated at various times. Those variables result in fluctuating levels of infection-induced immunity.
"We cannot assume that what's happening there will happen here, and yet we do have to prepare for surges. We are always now preparing for surges," Doron said. "Variants will emerge that evade immunity from the vaccine and prior infection, and we can't ever quite know exactly what they're going to do to our case rates until we get there."
The highly contagious BA.5 omicron subvariant has taken over as the dominant coronavirus strain in recent weeks and is fueling concerns about a potential summer surge. The threat of the BA.2.75 variant in India underscores the importance of global vaccination, according to Assoumou, who said, "We're not going to be able to get over this pandemic if we don't make sure that everyone, everywhere, is safe."
Moderna recently announced that it is developing two potential booster shots targeting the omicron subvariants, the Wall Street Journal reported, which could be rolled out by the fall. But Doron questioned whether variant-specific vaccines are a sufficient long-term solution, considering a new variant could always be lurking around the corner.
"It's the same story. It could be a problem, and it could not be a problem," Doron said of BA.2.75. "We can watch what a variant or some variant does in another country. We should always prepare for it to do that thing here. You know, it's expect the worst and hope for the best. That's all we can do. It's going to be impossible to predict. And how it behaves in one place may not predict how it behaves in another."
"I agree," Kuritzkes said. "We'll have to watch and see what happens -- whether this new variant really spreads significantly and if so, what it looks like. Right now, there's little we can do other than watching it."
Public health experts have been concerned about the possibility of a summer surge and now Massachusetts COVID wastewater data seems to be backing that up.
Protect your immune systems...
Vitamins D3 and C, Zinc, NAC, and Quercetin.
So does the “BA” stand for BadAss? Pretty much, no, completely over the entire scamdemic of CONvid-19 and all the subvariants. We have noticed at some places masks (WOOHOO!) are becoming prevalent again. Due to mis/dis/mal-information. 🔬🦠😵💫😷💉🚫🐎💩
Be aware that each of these variants are specific to the mutations of the SPIKE PROTEINS and not the RNA payload in the lipid envelope.
\That\ RNA is protected by US Patent.
It is quite likely that the vaxx, causing exponential production of spike proteins in the human petri-dish, created these mutations which are being shed by the vaxx’d population.
It is also notable that these episodes are occurring in foreign locales with a high incidence of vaxx’d populations [India].
Media manipulation with out oversight...
But, then again, I may be wrong.
There’s an election in the fall. The politicians miss the power they had over us in 2020. Yes, we will be told to worry, again.
Fear..fear...fear...where is chicken little?
We have been for years doing the B, C, D, K, Zinc, Pottasium regime along with the few scrips. Way before this farce was foisted upon us. I know some FReepers have suffered from it and we don’t want to diminish their bouts with it, but haven’t gotten it yet. Knock on wood. Daughter has it again and has been vaxxed but not boosted. Her husband has been vaxxed and boosted and currently has something going on but tests are negative (so far) for CONvid.
That reminds me, I need to go reload my supplements for the next 2 weeks. I have two of the big weekly containers. All of that is already in the stack, along with some others.
[[BA.2.75 – may be able to evade immunity from vaccines and prior infection. ]]
So? We get the sniffles for a few days, and now we have antibodies agaisnt the new strain as well. The left want Everyone panicking over sniffles
I wasn’t too worried about Covid-19, why would I worry at all about a greatly reduced variant?
[[Fear..fear...fear...where is chicken little?]]
In the hospital with a nervous breakdown
India’s death count is showing increase. About a double over the past couple of weeks.
But as has been true elsewhere, India will not have data meaningful to Europe or the US. Their life expectancy is much lower. The virus to date kills old people much more often than young people. If a country has low life expectancy, they die before the virus can kill them, so you don’t get valid death data from the virus.
Current US daily Covid death counts are about 100 more than the minimums of last summer. The surges the last two years have not been in North Hemisphere summer. Generally fall and winter.
I’d suggest having some Ivermectin on hand. Even with a good supplement stack, you can get it.
IANADNDIPOOTV
“… Scientists say the variant – called BA.2.75 – may be able to evade immunity from vaccines and prior infection….”
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Rinse and repeat every few months. Simply replace the variant name with the newest “surging” variant.
But remember, it’s less dangerous than the flu, Bro.
Nice post.
I think THE issue at this point is, “Is the sum of all interventions making the situation worse?”
Without study, it’s premature to declare that it’s masks, or “social distancing”, or isolation/quarantine, or vaccines, or medications - or some or all of these things - that is responsible for what by now is very unusual behavior for a new pathogen.
30 months in, the strain diversification and increased transmission should not be happening. I don’t believe (and I study epidemic diseases for a living) that there is precedent in the natural world for what we are seeing.
Whether or not the behavior is CAUSED by human interventions is an important question.
It is worth noting the the Gate’s foundation just invested heavily in a new testing company called LumiraDx.
Add Nicoret to your arsenal. Nicotine kills the spike proteins. Informative interview. Statistics at the beginning. Scientific updates after that.
Explosive! Dr. Ardis: Nicotine - The New Vaccine for COVID-19 (Video)
The Democrats are desperately hoping for a virulent variant to arrive. If this variant actually caused serious disease, they would get it here as soon as possible.
Another cold. Snore.
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