No, I didn’t specify what behaviors are appropriate. I think every individual should make those choices that make sense for them. But those choices are being made or should be made based on what we now know about the enemy we are currently dealing with—the range of Omicron variants. I’m just saying there’s no need to yet get anxious about a future unknown variant having a worse Long Covid outcome compared to Omicron. We have no information (yet) to lead us to believe this will be the case.
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For clarification, the covid budget shortfall may also impact the country’s ability to even purchase enough of the new bivalent vaccines from the vaccine makers for everyone who wants one, insured or uninsured.
Here’s Dr. Jha from today’s press briefing (second to last question):
So, first of all, we’re going to hear more from the FDA next week. Then, negotiators — kind of, contract negotiators on behalf of U.S. government are going to enter into contract negotiations with Moderna and Pfizer, with the resources that we’ve been able to pull together, cobble together for vaccines for the fall. It’s very clear we’re not going to have enough vaccines for every adult who wants one.
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How do they know how many people will want one? Booster uptake was definitely less than the original vaccine series. And since the media has stopped discussing COVID in almost any way, particularly with respect to hospitalization and death, I’m curious how many people will take the updated vaccines this fall.
Moderna is financing producing their new vaccine and seems like it should available for both public and private purchase if they receive FDA approval. At the briefing it was mentioned that many EU countries and the UK are ahead of the US in contracting with Moderna and Pfizer for the new vaccines. Is that because they’ve already received approval in those countries? Is Congress reluctant to allocate funds if the vaccines are still unapproved? What happens to the funds if the new vaccines aren’t approved?
From Financial Times article, “Moderna calls for approval of two-strain Covid vaccine booster”.
“Moderna is urging regulators to authorise its new two-strain Covid-19 vaccine booster, after releasing data that shows it increases immunity against the fast-spreading Omicron subvariants. The US biotech group said the vaccine — which contains the genetic code for the original strain and Omicron — demonstrated a “potent neutralising antibody response” to the subvariants BA.4 and BA.5. Stephen Hoge, Moderna president, said the higher level of protection compared with the company’s existing vaccine justified switching to the new booster, which could help prevent “a large rise in cases” in early autumn.
“We’ve been producing millions of doses over the last couple of months,” he added. “And we would hope to have tens of millions to hundreds of millions of doses available in August, September and October to support boosting prior to the fall respiratory virus season.”
“Moderna has been producing the updated vaccine on its own dime ahead of any regulatory approvals, and Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel said the company could begin supplying the shot in August.”
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And now Pfizer has a candidate for a booster targeting Omicron, also.
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220625005002/en/
It will be an interesting FDA advisory committee meeting on June 28, when boosters are discussed.
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That page refers to four versions of the Pfizer candidate:
- Monovalent (Omicron BA.1 only) or bivalent (Omicron BA.1 and old virus).
- 30 or 60 micrograms of mRNA.
For comparison, the current Pfizer vaccine for age 12 and up has 30 micrograms of mRNA for the old virus’ spike protein.
I am going to try and listen in on at least some of the FDA’s advisory committee’s meeting on Tuesday, where I’m sure they will delve into all the particulars. Interesting stuff!
Likely explanation is as a virus mutates it becomes less serious but more contagious. It’s following a typical virus track. Viruses typically become less severe and more contagious as they mutate. Latest variant likely mild and vaccinated or unvaccinated and boosted makes no significant difference in contracting or severity of illness. The vaccine was developed for the original strain and that is so different from current strains that at this point it is not considered effective at all. The strains will keep changing so it will be tough to keep a vaccine current. I know big pharm is still going to try but anti virals will probably be what is effective for those most at risk patients-hence starting to be the focus moving forward.
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This most recent study examined blood samples from individuals who received three doses of an mRNA vaccine, and found that more than 50 percent of the memory antibodies present after the third dose neutralized omicron. Although the second dose produced more versatile antibodies than the first dose, Hatziioannou says, it was not until the third dose that the memory compartment truly came into its own. “The third dose has a global effect, producing the strongest and broadest antibodies. With the third dose, we saw not only increased production of mature antibodies but also antibodies that were not visible after the second dose.”
The main takeaway, Hatziioannou says, is that a third dose is key to strengthening the immune system and preventing serious infection. “Our study could be considered an explanation of why the third dose should be recommended,” she says. “We now know exactly what the third dose does to immune memory, and it’s one the best reactions to the virus that we’ve seen.”
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Well I know plenty of people who have had three doses and had omnicrom so I’m not buying it. I think we shops remember pharmaceutical companies want to sell there product. it was great we had the vaccine but at this point and variants later as many is not more expensive wipes who have been vaccinated are still catching omnicron. I think boosting helps people feel safer- which is great for them but I do think the pharmaceutical companies are all for it and making a whole lot of money selling their vaccines and i can’t help but wonder if we taxing our immune systems with boosters before or after- still catching omnicron.
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Vaccines do not prevent infection. They prevent, for the most part, serious illness, hospitalization and death.
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You just earned a Nice Reply 
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Although I’d add that vaccines do prevent SOME infections (in addition to preventing much serious illness, hospitalization, and death). While in the beginning, unvaccinated folks were getting infected at a rate upwards of 15x more than vaccinated, and that difference has plummeted with time and Omicron, it appears (NYTimes, other sources), that unvaccinated people are still getting infected at a rate of 2x that of vaccinated. So yes, since infections are pretty rampant, we will all know tons of vaccinated people who are getting infected, but STILL they are LESS likely to get infected under the same circumstances as unvaccinated.
They prevent some infection, but not to the 90+% levels that they did against the original virus.
From the Washington Post COVID-10 update:
How many times can a person in their 60s be infected with Coronavirus after taking both shots of the vaccine and a booster shot? —Vanitha, Bloomington, Ill.
The short answer, unfortunately, is that the number of times a vaccinated and boosted person can get infected is probably limitless.
There are two main factors at play. The first is that SARS-CoV2, the virus that triggered the current pandemic, is constantly evolving and some of those changes are giving it the ability evade immunity from vaccines and boosters as well as previous natural infection. We are currently in the midst of another wave of illness from new versions of omicron, which have a key change in part of the spike protein that locks into our cells, that Science magazine recently dubbed “masters of immune evasion.”
The other issue is that immunity from the virus is suspected to last only a limited amount of time. This is why public health officials recommended a booster for all Americans and a fourth shot for those who are immunocompromised or older.
“Like most things in medicine it’s never black and white and there are so many subtleties,” said Thomas Moore, a clinical professor at medicine at the University of Kansas School of Medicine Wichita campus. “People can and do get reinfected even if they do everything right.”
A number of scientific groups are working on a universal coronavirus vaccine that they hope will be able to prevent against all existing strains of SARS-CoV-2 as well as anything that comes up in the future.
In the meantime, Moore emphasized that there is overwhelming evidence that getting the vaccine and booster when recommended remains the best defense in preventing serious illness or death.
“I think the lesson here is to keep your immunity against the virus current and wear a mask in public,” Moore said.
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Which omnicron doesn’t cause in most cases anyway- independent studies ( not conducted by the pharmaceutical company producing the vaccine) aren’t proving that illness is more or less severe in vaccinated or unvaccinated at this stage in the disease. Most cases are relatively mild with low hospitalization rates.
This is inaccurate. Many studies out there, not done by pharmaceutical companies, but here is one released yesterday by the Washington State Dept. of Health, just as a quick example that took 20 seconds to google. https://doh.wa.gov/sites/default/files/2022-02/421-010-CasesInNotFullyVaccinated.pdf
From the Exec Summary:
Summary
Unvaccinated 12-34 year-olds in Washington are
• 1.8 times more likely to get COVID-19 compared with 12-34 year-olds who have completed the
primary series.
• 3.1 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with 12-34 year-olds who have
completed the primary series.
Unvaccinated 35-64 year-olds are
• 2.1 times more likely to get COVID-19 compared with 35 - 64 year-olds who have completed the
primary series.
• 3.6 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with 35 - 64 year-olds who have
completed the primary series.
Unvaccinated 65+ year-olds are
• 3.1 times more likely to get COVID-19 compared with 65+ year-olds who have completed the
primary series.
4
• 3.5 times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared with 65+ year-olds who have
completed the primary series.
• 4.2 times more likely to die of COVID-19 compared with 65+ year-olds who have completed the
primary series
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YLE writes about the FDA and Omicron boosters:
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Not inaccurate. You have a lot of numbers there… you failed to however put the date- this data is collected from Feb 2021 to May 2022- that means it has original covid data, also the very dangerous delta and now also omicron and omicron variants. Omicron for most people is relatively mild- not needing hospitalization. Covid- omicron is endemic. It is going to be around. Some will get shots that continue to be developed -like they have with the flu -some will take anti viral, etc- there are treatments now and as I have stated with the current situation covid omicron is mild now for most people. I’m soooooo over dissecting these numbers any longer to lock everyone down and preach for masks. This is not going anywhere, the current vaccine does not work. They will work to develop an new vaccine that may or may not work as the disease continues to mutate and have variants. Thankfully the virus has followed the path Viruses typically follow and has become more contagious and less severe. I have no need for anymore outdated, broad studies, from skewed sources to know that those that have health issues will need to be careful- as they have to be with any virus and the relatively healthy people will and are living with this and that’s what happens after every pandemic. It’s ok and healthy to now treat covid as we do other viruses and the flu. The world keeps moving. Fear won’t stop that
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This is true of all the variants we have seen…most people who have gotten covid have not been hospitalized.
Covid will be around forever but the data in the noted study, as well as many other studies show that vaccines prevent severe disease, hospitalization, and death.
CIDRAP estimates the available worldwide covid vaccines have saved 20 million lives in their first year, other studies have made similar estimates.
Vaccinated people also have a lower risk of developing long covid.
To say the vaccines are ‘not working’ is ignorant.
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Just curious…are you against masks at any time? If an infected person leaves isolation, they are still supposed to wear a mask until Day 10. Are you against that?
Do you consider isolation after infection to be a “lockdown”? Are you against that?
Would you even test if you had symptoms? I’m asking because I suspect many people who are tired of covid and don’t mask would answer in the affirmative to the above questions.
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