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Do New Covid ‘Scrabble’ Variants Make Omicron Boosters Pointless? Here’s What Experts Say
CNBC ^ | Sat, Nov 5 2022 | Annika Kim Constantino, Renée Onque

Posted on 11/09/2022 2:53:44 PM PST by nickcarraway

f you’ve received a new omicron-specific Covid booster, you’re the most protected you possibly can be against the virus.

But there’s a new batch of so-called “Scrabble” variants circulating globally. While omicron’s BA.5 subvariant still accounts for nearly 40% of U.S. Covid cases, strains like BQ.1, BQ.1.1 and BA.4.6 are rising each week, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

The new strains present an uncomfortable question: Are the new bivalent boosters still worth getting, or has the virus already outmaneuvered them?

“A booster is a booster,” Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of the division of infectious disease at Weill Cornell Medicine and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, tells CNBC Make It. “What about all these new Scrabble variants? The message remains the same: Get boosted, provoke your immune system to make a good response to the virus.”

The emerging strains are new enough that booster-shot-protection data doesn’t yet exist for them. But experts still expect the shots to ramp up your immunity against all Covid variants, to some degree.

Here’s why, and what else you need to know.

The Scrabble variants are descendants of omicron The new variants are descendants of omicron, which is a promising initial sign for the boosters.

“We have some hope, especially since this is all the same omicron. They’re just multiple subvariants,” says Dr. Rachael Lee, an associate professor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “I’m hoping that that is enough to protect us through fall.”

Even though the Scrabble variants have found new ways to “cut through our immunity,” they likely can’t evade vaccine-induced protection entirely, says Dr. Deborah Fuller, a University of Washington School of Medicine microbiologist.

When you get vaccinated, your body generates an alphabet soup of different virus-fighting antibodies, she explains. Some antibodies eventually become more dominant than others, and provide the majority of your body’s protection.

Those dominant antibodies become the target of new Covid mutations. But the omicron-specific boosters — or any Covid booster, for that matter — can help expand your “soup” and generate a greater concentration of antibodies, Fuller says.

That can “restore a level of immunity and patch up the holes that some of these new Scrabble variants have found,” she explains.

No vaccine is ever 100% effective against infection. But ramping up other antibodies could help control the virus’s ability to replicate, helping shorten the length of infections and protect against severe disease and hospitalization, Fuller says.

Previous boosters appear to provide some protection still Without data on the new boosters’ efficiency against the Scrabble variants, some experts are looking at how the original monovalent Covid booster — which became available to U.S. adults ages 18 and older in November 2021 — performed against then-emerging variants like omicron.

“There are studies already to show that even the monovalent booster, whether it was Pfizer or Moderna, actually produces similar neutralizing antibodies against these variants [when compared to other variants],” says Dr. Jose Vazquez, chief of infectious disease at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

Recent data has shown that some antibodies, whether from vaccination or previous infection, have lasted as long as a year and a half in some people — and more than 80% of the North American population has had a Covid vaccine or infection, says Vazquez.

“Fortunately for us, all of these vaccines, including the original vaccine, will elicit some type of neutralizing antibody response,” Vazquez says. “That will help us despite the fact that these are brand-new variants that we have.”


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: covid19; omicron; vaccines
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1 posted on 11/09/2022 2:53:44 PM PST by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Scrabble variant? Like triple word score?


2 posted on 11/09/2022 2:54:43 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (81 million votes my ass.)
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To: EvilCapitalist

Is this a kitchen sink booster using up all the left over vaccines in a vat.


3 posted on 11/09/2022 2:57:17 PM PST by cnsmom
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To: cnsmom

I’ll bet so.


4 posted on 11/09/2022 2:58:23 PM PST by No name given (Anonymous is who you’ll know me as. )
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To: nickcarraway
received a new omicron-specific Covid booster, you’re the most protected you possibly can be against the virus.

How about Heart Attacks???
5 posted on 11/09/2022 2:58:27 PM PST by eyeamok (founded in cynicism, wrapped in sarcasm)
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To: nickcarraway

The “vaccines” are “100% effective”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okw8mZbz_6U


6 posted on 11/09/2022 2:58:31 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: nickcarraway

Just give the drug companies your money you’ll be fine. Excuse me I have to run to the bank.


7 posted on 11/09/2022 2:59:19 PM PST by Equine1952
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To: nickcarraway; mewzilla

They/Pfizer have known about this issue for a long time!:

Meanwhile our current vaccines are basically worthless as stated by the Pfizer CEO!

Pfizer CEO: Our Vaccines Offer ‘Limited, If Any Protection’!
townhall.com ^ | 1/11/2022 0900 hrs et | Katie Pavlich
Posted on 1/11/2022, 10:03:58 AM by rktman

They knew a month after the roll out that the vaccine had waning efficacy and/or vaccine failure. The public didn’t know until a year later.

Speaking during remarks to a J.P. Morgan healthcare conference this week, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla openly stated current vaccines the company developed for Wuhan coronavirus offer “limited, if any” protection against contracting current variants of the disease. He then encouraged booster shots.

The statement from Bourla comes as the Biden administration continues to justify vaccine mandates for federal workers, contractors and private businesses. The Supreme Court heard arguments about President Biden’s mandates for private companies and medical workers last week. A ruling is expected soon on the constitutionality of the mandates.

A number of people who have pointed out the waning efficacy of Pfizer’s vaccines, which Bourla touted last year as being “100 percent” effective against contracting or transmitting the virus, have been banned by social media companies.

(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com …
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2022/01/11/pfizer-ceo-our-vaccines-offer-little-protection-n2601670 Wall Street Journal 1/9/2022

Omicron Makes Biden’s Vaccine Mandates Obsolete!

“There is no evidence so far that vaccines are reducing infections from the fast-spreading variant. ... there have been mass Omicron outbreaks in heavily vaccinated populations, scientists are highly uncertain the existing vaccines can stop it from spreading. ... there should be sufficient evidence that the vaccine is efficacious in preventing serious infection and/or transmission.” For Omicron, there is as yet no such evidence. ...

The little data we have suggest the opposite. One preprint study found that after 30 days the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines no longer had any statistically significant positive effect against Omicron infection, and after 90 days, their effect went negative—i.e., vaccinated people were more susceptible to Omicron infection. Confirming this negative efficacy finding, data from Denmark and the Canadian province of Ontario indicate that vaccinated people have higher rates of Omicron infection than unvaccinated people.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/omicron-makes-bidens-vaccine-mandates-obsolete-covid-healthcare-osha-evidence-supreme-court-11641760009?mod=e2tw
https://ibb.co/rQztT8X

—-————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
P_McCulloughMD
@P_McCulloughMD
·
34m
Bourla has COVID-19 after Pfizer vaccine fails x 4. No embarrassment. No apology. Unvaccinated have milder symptoms with Omicron. Paxlovid off label, and ineffective if vaccinated, will prolong illness and period of infectivity to others. Should start McCullough Protocol and refrain from more failed vaccine injections.

22 posted on 8/15/2022, 8:09:39 AM by Qiviut

—-—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————
Watch as Pfizer executive Janine Small admits to EU parliament that Pfizer did not test the vaccine for preventing transmission of Covid prior to it being made available to the public.

https://patriots.win/p/15JndWxsYL/watch-as-pfizer-executive-janine/c/

2 posted on 10/11/2022, 11:30:02 AM by mewzilla


8 posted on 11/09/2022 3:00:15 PM PST by Grampa Dave (Vote Republican! They might not be perfect, but the other side is insane!)
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To: nickcarraway

Wife and I had Covid nearly 3 weeks ago, tested positive at the Urgent Care. We are 70 & 68. We had the sniffles for 4 or 5 days, ran a fever for a day or so and low on energy. After about a week we were feeling pretty good, not exactly 100% but maybe 85%. We still tested positive after 10 days, but at 2 weeks we were negative and back to normal.

My sister, 64, no diabetes or serious issues, got Covid and couldn’t hold any food down for nearly a month and it took her another month to get halfway back to normal. She lost 30 lbs. in about 5 or 6 weeks.

Varies by individual, it was like a mild cold for the wife and me, but it was no joke for my sister, she was really ill.


9 posted on 11/09/2022 3:06:02 PM PST by Roadrunner383 (;)
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To: nickcarraway

#PureBlood

Some natural immunity from having Covid 10 months ago.

Some more from D, C, zinc, etc. supplements.

Ivermectin on hand.

Not going to take your BS Covid “vaccines” (really experimental gene therapies of questionable safety and efficacy), Big Pharma.


10 posted on 11/09/2022 3:07:44 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda est)
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To: EvilCapitalist
The CDC doesn't have a CLUE about what to do, and certainly doesn't have a MONOPOLY on the data related to these SCRABBLE COVID variants.

It looks like we'll be in TROUBLE and at great RISK until a cure is found.

11 posted on 11/09/2022 3:08:32 PM PST by who_would_fardels_bear (This is not a tagline.)
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To: who_would_fardels_bear

I see what you did there.


12 posted on 11/09/2022 3:14:01 PM PST by EvilCapitalist (81 million votes my ass.)
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To: nickcarraway

The only point in this entire scam was at the end of the needle that folks got contaminated by. 🚫😷💉🐂💨💩


13 posted on 11/09/2022 3:25:56 PM PST by rktman (Destroy America from within? Check! WTH? Enlisted USN 1967 to end up with this? 😕)
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To: eyeamok

“How about Heart Attacks???”

Not so much


14 posted on 11/09/2022 3:26:41 PM PST by ConjunctionJunction (Vim vi repellere licet)
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To: nickcarraway

Here are scrabble letters for this little game: ADE. OAS. VAIDS.

(Antibody Dependent Enhancement, Original Antigenetic Sin, Vaccine Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome)


15 posted on 11/09/2022 3:32:28 PM PST by CheshireTheCat ("Forgetting pain is convenient.Remembering it agonizing.But recovering truth is worth the suffering")
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To: nickcarraway

Boosters have always been pointless. They can’t keep.up. Time to stop worrying over Covid, unless one has a medical condition that warrants concern.


16 posted on 11/09/2022 3:40:47 PM PST by CatHerd (Whoever said "All's fair in love and war" probably never participated in either.)
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To: nickcarraway

Scrap the vaccination “program”. Lots of fresh air, sunshine, and plenty of reliance on using the prophylactic properties of zinc (Zn++ ion) daily ingestion along with a suitable Zn++ ionophore like quercetin or some combination of Vitamin D3 and Vitamin C. Or maybe ivermectin.

Good for man or beast.


17 posted on 11/09/2022 3:41:45 PM PST by alloysteel (People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do - Isaac Asimov)
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To: nickcarraway

Thanks so very much. I always get my “expert” science references from that paragon of information CNBC.


18 posted on 11/09/2022 4:04:07 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: nickcarraway

“Experts say”

Take a drink


19 posted on 11/09/2022 4:19:47 PM PST by Organic Panic (Democrats. Memories as short as Joe Biden's eyes.)
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To: nickcarraway

It’s dead, Jim. I was at our local hospital yesterday. Even they didn’t require a mask. The pandemic is over as far as most people are concerned.


20 posted on 11/09/2022 4:36:59 PM PST by rxh4n1
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