Another excellent article from Katherine J. Wu. Must read for cat lovers. See link for full article. The Best COVID Vaccine Series Will Be a Varied One - The Atlantic Two years into the pandemic, and two months into Omicron’s globe-crushing surge, our COVID-19 vaccines are finally on the cusp of a federally sanctioned update. To counter the new variant’s uncanny knack for slipping past antibodies roused by our first-generation shots, Moderna and Pfizer have both kick-started clinical trials to see how Omicron-specific vaccines fare in people. Results are expected within the next few months, and if all goes well, syringes around the world could be locked and loaded with Omicron’s wonky-looking spike protein by the summer. Our vaccine regimens going forward should include Omicron “for sure,” Rafi Ahmed, an immunologist at Emory University, told me. But they should also “include one of the earlier strains,” and even leave room for a future variant, as the SARS-CoV-2 family tree continues to branch, he said. For the billions of people around the world who are still unvaccinated, including tens of millions of children under 5 in the United States—more of whom are being born every day—going all in on Omicron could backfire. The original shots, outdated as they are, likely still have a role to play. ... That trend probably has a limit, Melanie Ott, a virologist at Gladstone Institutes, in San Francisco, told me. “I don’t know if it’s wise to go four, five, six, seven times with the same spike,” she said. Eventually we’ll hit the point of diminishing returns; the body may even become too fixated on only the most common cat traits, and start to ignore what falls outside the norm. (Omicron? That’s just some giant, naked rodent.) That’s probably reason enough to avoid boosting in perpetuity with the original recipe. For the next round of COVID shots, whenever they might be necessary, we may be better off using something else—an “insurance policy,” as Goel put it, to help the body broaden its coronavirus scope. Omicron would seem to be the obvious choice; ideally “we should be vaccinating with what’s circulating,” Katie Gostic, an infectious-disease modeler at the University of Chicago, told me. “That has the best chance of protecting you today.” That sort of thinking is what seems to be driving Moderna’s and Pfizer’s new trials. Both companies are revaccinating twice- and thrice-immunized people with Omicron’s spike, a strategy that should bolster the defenses already laid down by prior vaccines, experts told me, while coaxing out new, Omicron-specific protections to complement them. But the products won’t be available to the public for at least another couple of months, by which time Omicron may be mostly blipping off the map, or being overtaken by another variant that renders a sphynx-specific shot less useful. Some experts have even argued that there will be no point to boosting with Omicron’s spike when that shot’s ready; it’ll be too late. That vaccine’s utility, then, hinges on what the next big move in SARS-CoV-2’s evolution might be. ... Researchers are still working out the nitty-gritty of what’s behind this Omicron bias, but experts told me that they suspect the new variant’s weirdness can cut both ways: Original-recipe-trained immune fighters struggle to recognize Omicron; Omicron-trained defenders aren’t great at homing in on variants that look like OG. When Omicron lopes into an airway that’s never seen a coronavirus spike before (either through infection or vaccination), antibody-producing immune cells seem to lock on to features that are sphynx-like—its nudity; its webbed paws; its gaunt, stern, Clint Eastwood–esque face—but that are not necessarily all that helpful for ID’ing the average cat breed. “It’s just too specialized,” Sigal said. The new variant is too much of an aberration, compared with its cousins, to go all in on with our vaccination regimes; in a landscape of diversity, he said, betting on averages, rather than extremes, is safer. No one can yet say whether the myopia that unfolds after an Omicron infection will translate over to Omicron-based shots, but if it does, unimmunized bodies pumped up only with Omicron vaccines might get hitched to the wrong wagon. “If it were me going to the vaccination station, I wouldn’t want just three doses of Omicron,” Sigal said. ... The point is that a diverse spike regimen will usually be a better bet than a single-spike one, whether those spikes are from the classic SARS-CoV-2, Omicron, or another variant past, present, or future. “It’s no secret that broad immunity is elicited with a broad strategy,” Ott said. Vaccine makers might even be wise to toss Beta- or Delta-spike vaccines into the mix, she added, just to see what sorts of immunological oomph they offer. Several companies, including Moderna, are also testing shots that combine at least two spike flavors in one dose, which could make the logistics of multi-variant regimens easier. As research into SARS-CoV-2’s evolution continues, scientists may even glean enough intel to start to predict which variants might usurp the global throne next—and recommend that strain for use in, say, an annual shot. A massive worldwide surveillance program already makes this possible for the flu; equivalent programs for COVID are still in their infancy, but they are growing. Tactics like these could pave the path to universal vaccines—single shots that could teach the body to recognize a whole panoply of variants and that wouldn’t have to be updated every time the coronavirus undergoes a costume change, Padmini Pillai, an immunologist at MIT, told me. “Relying on new boosters every time we have a new variant of concern is not a viable strategy,” she said. For now, though, we can achieve at least some of the same effects by mixing and matching the tools we have. The original SARS-CoV-2 may be effectively dead. But with its ghost living on in our vaccines, what it has to offer us is not.
Kind of a dumb question unless you think germs were never spread. Generally if one had the flu, for example, they would spread the "flu germ" by interacting with someone, poor hygiene habits, etc. If they wear a mask, the chances of spreading the flu goes down dramatically. What point are you trying to make with this question?
nothing that's why the majority of the deaths during the Civil War were not on the actual battlefield but were in the hospital. Infections (from the wounds) and diseases killed 2/3 of the 660,000 people who died during the Civil War. Like modern-day anti-vaxxers, they didn't understand how diseases spread. Washing hands and wearing masks were not a part of their routine.
Should we have all been wearing masks prior to covid to dramatically reduce the spreading of the flu?
Probably some of the 50,000 Americans who die annually from the flu would have appreciated it. But no. I think we can stand to be more cognizant of the vulnerable, be better about getting flu shots, be better about staying home (and/or wearing a mask) when we're sick with the flu. I will be better about it now because Covid exposed a blind spot in my own thinking. But the high transmissibility of covid makes it a fundamentally different problem from the flu. Some deaths from contagious diseases is acceptable, but a high number of deaths and morbidity, plus the significant strain on the economy and health resources is not acceptable. Covid shouldn't be treated like the flu, and the flu shouldn't be treated like Covid.
Seems like as time drags on, we're more willing to accept death and misery around us for the sake of convenience and comfort. A 55mph speed limit on highways to save gas for example. Or making sure kids don't have the specter of a nutcase roaming around schools with a fully automatic rifle. So yeah, don't get covid and die from it you p***y. Very simple. **** off, and let me breathe free.
we did see flu pretty much vanished... it should be encouraged - if sick, wear one; during peaks, wear one
Yes I think the Asian habit of wearing mask out in public when you're feeling ill should've long been adopted here in the US.
In that same vein, why should I wash my hands after taking a ****?? They're not brown or **** stained. I was raised right! Fuggin woke hippies and their oversensitive noses.
