COVID Caught a Cold

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A gene sequence from the common cold virus has worked its way into the Omicron variant of COVID-19. This gene sequence was not in any of the previous mutations of the virus (Alpha, Beta, Delta).

This happened through a process known as switching. The COVID virus invaded a cell and at the same time a common cold virus invaded the same cell. The genes of the two viruses then get mixed up together. This new combination makes the virus more competitive and virulent.

The virus became far more transmissible but perhaps less pathogenic. Patients in South Africa are nor requiring as much oxygen as was needed for patients suffering from Delta.

Omicron is evading vaccines and people who have been infected in the past are being re-infected. Pfizer-BioNTech,  has announced that three doses of vaccine are needed to combat Omicron. Research has shown that a third vaccine shot increases antibodies by 25%. They did not say how long those antibodies last. The company is rushing to develop an Omicron specific version of the vaccine which should be available by March 2022.

Omicron is the most transmissible of all the variants of COVID-19 to date. It is 4 times more transmissible than Delta. It has now been detected in 57 countries. Those numbers change by the hour. It will dominate the world stage in several weeks time. We will all be exposed to this variant. Symptoms include, Body aches and pains, muscle pain, headache, tiredness (1 to 2 days), and a slight sore throat. People are not getting a severe cough, or runny nose. These symptoms are consistent with my everyday existence for the past 20 months. A loss of smell or taste is no longer a symptom with Omicron. The fact is that many people will not realize that they have COVID-19 with these symptoms. Most will not go to hospitals and will recover at home. It is important to note however that there has been an slight increase in hospitalizations in South Africa, but it has not been a huge spike consistent with the amazing exponential growth in infections.

Though Omicron looms in the near future, the fact is that Delta is causing a huge spike in hospitalizations and death in states like Michigan and Minnesota. Despite these rising cases and deaths, most Americans are done with the pandemic and have returned to pre-pandemic life styles. Thanksgiving travel rivaled pre-pandemic travel and cases that resulted from all that mingling are just now reaching their peak. People have let their guard down and the virus will take full advantage of that weakness.

Children are the new victims of the virus. 132,000 children have been reported with infections in the last week across the country. Children will be infected by the Omicron variant at an increased rate. Children need to be vaccinated and even boosted if they are eligible. In South Africa 80% of the patients admitted to hospitals and diagnosed with COVID were under the age of 50. This is a younger age profile than existed with the Delta surge.

Waning Immunity

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The news every day has stories of breakthrough infections. CNN reported that 2 studies published October 6, 2021 confirm that the immune protection offered by two doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine drops off after two months or so, although protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death remains strong. The studies, from Israel and from Qatar and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, support arguments that even fully vaccinated people need to maintain precautions against infection.

Men’s immunity drop off faster than  women’s immunity. The study also indicated that immunity for people who get vaccinated after natural Covid-19 infection lasts longer. It’s especially strong for people who recovered from infection and then got vaccinated. “Overall, the accumulating evidence from our study and others shows that long-term response and vaccine effectiveness in previously infected persons were superior to that in recipients of two doses of vaccine,” they wrote. That leaves me wondering if being fully vaccinated and then getting infected also creates this sort of super boost to immunity.

Pfizer/BioNTech‘s vaccine protection against infection builds rapidly after the first dose, peaks in the first month after the second dose, and then gradually wanes in subsequent months,” Laith Abu-Raddad of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar and colleagues wrote. “The waning appears to accelerate after the fourth month, to reach a low level of approximately 20% in subsequent months,” they added.

Americans can choose a COVID-19 booster shot that is different from their original inoculation but the recommendation is to stick with the vaccine they got first if it is available, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said on October 22, 2021. 80 Million Americans are still unvaccinated so there is plenty of wood for this fire to continue to burn through.

City Mouse

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The numbers of deaths from COVID-19 in 2021 has already surpassed the number of deaths in 2020. Urban Americas are dying half as often from COVID-19 infections compared to their  rural American counterparts.

Vaccinations are the most effective way to prevent Covid-19 infections from turning deadly. Roughly 41 percent of rural America was vaccinated as of September 23, 2021, compared with about 53 percent of urban America, according to an analysis by The Daily Yonder, a newsroom covering rural America. Limited supplies and low access made shots hard to get in the far-flung regions at first, but officials and academics now blame vaccine hesitancy, misinformation and politics for the low vaccination rates.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for some people who completed their two-dose series of the Pfizer vaccine at least six months ago. Getting fully vaccinated — including your boosters if you qualify — is the right thing to do because it protects others from getting COVID-19.

Boosters are suggested for:

  • People 65 or older
  • People who have a medical condition that puts them at high risk
  • People who work in a setting where they could be exposed to the virus like teachers and store clerks.

Only 57% of the Americans population has been fully vaccinated. Many elite city dwellers got their vaccine booster shots early by taking advantage of the nation’s vaccine surplus and loose tracking of those who have been fully vaccinated. As of August 11, 2021, 1.1 Million Americans had already gotten the booster shot. An NBC News analysis of CDC data shows that the number of people receiving booster shots is outpacing those getting their first or second doses of the initial vaccination.

On October 14, 2021 the FDA’s advisory committee will meet to discuss and potentially recommend approval of booster shots for people who received Moderna’s vaccine.

October 15, 2021  that committee will meet to potentially recommend approval of boosters for those who received Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Also, that day, the committee will discuss potentially mixing and matching vaccine boosters — that is, getting a booster that’s different from your original vaccine.

Then, about a week and a half later, on October 26, 2021 the FDA has scheduled a meeting to approve the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.

Freedom From Fear

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With the full FDA approve of the Pfizer vaccine now called Comirnaty, there is a faint hope that more Americans will step forward to get vaccinated to stop the horrible spread of the virus now ravaging the country. With K-12 students reentering schools this also raised the possibility of soon vaccinating children.

Once a drug or vaccine has been FDA-approved, doctors have the leeway to prescribe it “off label” — that is, for a use for which it wasn’t specifically approved. After rigorous clinical trials, the FDA authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use in people 16 and up in December 2020 and in adolescents ages 12 to 15 in May 2021. Significant data does not yet exist for children under the age of 12 yet.

Trials in children between the ages of 5 and 11 should be completed in September 2021, Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla told NBC News anchor Lester Holt. Trial data for even younger children should be landing soon after that. That however leaves children unvaccinated as the Delta variant spreads through the school systems.

The American Academy of Pediatrics acknowledged that August 23rd’s regulatory action “means it is legally permissible for physicians to administer the vaccine off-label for children aged 11 and younger, who currently have no available vaccine.” But the organization said in a statement that it “strongly discourages that practice.” FDA officials were also quick to discourage prescribing of the vaccine for younger children.

This is a deeply stressful time for parents of younger children, given that COVID-19 has largely now become a scourge of the unvaccinated. And it’s nerve-wracking to send those unvaccinated children out into school where they’ll be exposed to other people indoors for long periods of time. The best advice for parents is to wait for the FDA give a definite green light.

Breakthrough Cases

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The CDC has reported 5800 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 out of the nearly 77 million people who have been fully vaccinated. 65 percent of the cases were in women, and just over 40 percent were in people ages 60 and up. About 29% of those experiencing breakthrough infections experienced no symptoms, however, seven percent of people were hospitalized, and 74 people died.

It is unclear why asymptomatic individuals were tested for Covid-19 after being fully vaccinated. It could be that some employers, such as health care systems, require regular testing.

People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after they receive their second dose of a two-dose vaccine, such as the Pfizer-BioNTech or the Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. (Use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is currently paused in the U.S. as federal health officials investigate cases of rare blood clots linked to the shots.) In clinical trials, the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines were found to be around 95 percent effective against Covid-19, and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 72 percent effective against moderate-to-severe illness in its U.S. trial.

“I would encourage people to continue, once they’re vaccinated, to use all the prevention measures that we’ve been talking about when they’re outside their home, including masking and distancing and whatnot. And all of that should be active in the workplace,” the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said during a briefing for the press on April 12, 2021. These breakthrough cases are another reason that people should continue to wear masks, social distance and wash hands since research is not yet in on weather they could pass the disease on to others.

Vaccination remains critical to ending the pandemic. “It does not reduce the risk to nil, but it does reduce the risk to something that we can handle.”