The Nightmare COVID Variant That Beats Our Immunity Is Finally Here

Finally, gawd I've been waiting on the treatment for this cancerous growth on the earth for decades!

Better late than never!

The by line reads:

The XBB subvariant of Omicron appears to be the fastest spreading COVID virus yet, and most of our treatments don’t touch it.

Hammer Time

A new subvariant of the novel-coronavirus called XBB dramatically announced itself earlier this week, in Singapore. New COVID-19 cases more than doubled in a day, from 4,700 on Monday to 11,700 on Tuesday—and XBB is almost certainly why. The same subvariant just appeared in Hong Kong, too.

A highly mutated descendant of the Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that drove a record wave of infections starting around a year ago, XBB is in many ways the worst form of the virus so far. It’s more contagious than any previous variant or subvariant. It also evades the antibodies from monoclonal therapies, potentially rendering a whole category of drugs ineffective as COVID treatments.

It seems to originate in some of the highest Social Distancing, Lockdowns, Quarantined and Vaccinated Populations:

Vs

Hmmmm.....

“It is likely the most immune-evasive and poses problems for current monoclonal antibody-based treatments and prevention strategy,” Amesh Adalja, a public-health expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told The Daily Beast.

I'd expect the experts to at least be on the same continent, but I'm just unreasonable.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the new “bivalent” vaccine boosters from Pfizer and Moderna seem to work just fine against XBB, even though the original vaccines are less effective against XBB. They won’t prevent all infections and reinfections, but they should significantly reduce the chance of severe infection potentially leading to hospitalization or death. “Even with immune-evasive variants, vaccine protection against what matters most—severe disease—remains intact,” Adalja said.

The great news is that they tested it on 8 mice, total, and

only 8 mice.

As the novel-coronavirus evolves to become more contagious and more resistant to certain types of drugs, keeping current on your boosters is “the most impactful thing you can do in preparation for what might come,” Peter Hotez, an expert in vaccine development at Baylor College, told The Daily Beast.

And mask up, and distance, they forgot the drill!

Scientists first identified XBB in August. It’s one of several major subvariants that have evolved from the basic Omicron variant, piling on more and more mutations on key parts of the virus—especially the spike protein, the part of the virus that helps it grab onto and infect our cells.

It makes sense, the new variant is defeating to immunity, yet boosters which supposedly work by generating immunity defeat the virus, despite the boosters not containing the new, "finally here" variant, and this is literally based of testing the boosters on less than a dozen mice.

XBB has at least seven new mutations along the spike. Mutations that, taken together, make the subvariant harder for our immune systems to recognize—and thus more likely to evade our antibodies and enter our cells to cause infection.

So, can we say deadly, or its not enough data on that yet, you know, more contagious, greater infection profile, and +1 invisibility from antibodies?

This accumulation of mutations isn’t surprising. Changes along the spike protein have characterized most of the major new variants and subvariants of SARS-CoV-2 as the pandemic grinds toward its fourth year.

But significantly less deadly than the common cold, or flu..

What is surprising is how much competition XBB has as it fights to become the next dominant form of the novel-coronavirus. Several other Omicron subvariants are also in circulation. All of them are highly evolved. Many of them actually share a subset of key mutations, especially on the spike.

It's numerous mutations aren't surprising, it's surprising that there's "several other highly mutated variants". 6 mutation is meh, 6 different version OMG!

So while XBB appears to be gaining traction in Asia, a close cousin of XBB called BQ.1.1 is spreading fast in Europe and some U.S. states. There are others in contention, too, including BA.2.75.2. Hotez calls these viral cousins the “Scrabble” subvariants, a nod to the classic word game and the jumble of scientific designations of closely related viruses.

Make that 3 "variants".

The Scrabble variants are indicative of what scientists call “convergent evolution.” That is, separate viral sublineages that are picking up more and more of the same mutations. It’s as though Omicron’s children are all separately learning how to be a better virus than their parent, and becoming more like each other in the process.

They should look up to the Flu, that takes you out, where as the papa Cron is so meh most people reportedly don't even know they have it.

In evading some of our therapies and, to a lesser extent, our original vaccines, XBB and its cousins are showing us where the novel-coronavirus is heading, genetically speaking. The current surge in infections in places like Singapore is a preview of a potential global surge, this coming winter or spring, as XBB or one of its relatives becomes dominant everywhere.

So the plot is completely lost.

The surge isn't in some country with zero restrictions or poor vaccination rates. It's in the most highly oppressed and vaccinated populations, read more here:

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-nightmare-xbb-covid-variant-that-beats-our-immunity-is-finally-here?source=articles&via=rss

The plot is so far gone, you'll start to think the "Defeating Immunity" was a typo, but like they need immunity for boosters, invoking immunity works with boosters because the viruses are cusins, it's just natural immunity that's being defeated, don't get it twisted!

The virus isn’t done with us. Which means we can’t be done with it. Get boosted. And be prepared to get boosted again in 2023.

Let the democide continue.