In February of this year (2021) I wrote a White Paper on Vaccines and Variants. I noted that the variants would most likely come from immune compromised populations where the virus has a chance to go through a multiplicity of mutations. I then suggested a strategy to deal with these variants including enhanced vaccines wherein the mRNA was a complex.
Now almost a year latter we see Omicron, also a noted variant I spoke of earlier, and its rapid spread.
The NY Times notes:
With the holiday travel season already underway, new coronavirus cases are surging in the United States, prompting governors and mayors to once again wrestle with how far to go to combat the virus as federal officials said that Omicron has become by far the dominant form of new virus cases in the country.In New York State, reports of new cases shot up more than 80 percent over two weeks. In Washington, D.C., where the mayor reinstated an indoor mask mandate on Monday, more than three times as many infections are being identified each day as at the start of December.
This was not an unanticipated event. In fact as I had noted it was expected. In addition we should be well ahead of the bow wave in vaccine enhancements by including the Omicron mRNA in the mRNA vaccines. Instead the Jesuitical Sophist and its ilk spend time pontificating on political palaver instead of keeping their political thoughts to themselves and acting in the best interests on the citizenry. We went through 2020 with no vaccine but a hope for it. Now we have vaccines but they need updating, continual updating.
The Times also notes:
The move comes after New York City
officials announced that they would open an additional 23 coronavirus
testing sites by the end of the week to try to meet a soaring demand as
people race to learn their status before holiday travel and indoor
gatherings. “Testing helps us on so
many levels,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters on Monday. “It helps
to make sure that each person knows where they stand. On the very
personal level, when you get tested, you know what’s going on, you know
what to do.” By the end of this week,
New Yorkers will have 112 city-run sites, which are spread out among all
five boroughs and have been opened in various settings, including
health care facilities, schools, libraries and community centers.
The testing systems were demanded almost two years ago after the CDC gross incompetence. But alas a bigger set of bumblers now inhabit that domain and the Government has again grossly failed to be in any way effective. This was NOT a surprise. So why the inability to find a site. In New Jersey if one tries to go to a public site the current wait for an appointment is ten days! I guess it is faster to come and collect the body!
Good and credible Government communicators must tell the populace as well as educate them. Don't lecture, be empathetic, and let the public know what and why. Instead we regrettably get monomaniacal manifestations of misinformation.
Bottom line is:
1. Vaccines work, not in preventing the virus but in suppressing its effects. The virus can still enter the system but the immune system has been fine tuned to attack and destroy if before it causes problems.
2. Vaccinated people can still transmit the virus. We noted in April of 2020 that the virus can remain dormant in the nasal passages in an immune person but then can be spread to others. Vaccines are not preventative, they assist the immune system in battling the infection so it does not cause too much damage.
3. We really, really, need better Government communicators, not politicians.
4. Annualized vaccines are anticipated and the virus mutates and becomes endemic. Just like the flu.
5. Post infection medications will also become more common and effective.
6. We really, really, need a competent Public Health system like we had a century ago. The we dealt with the flu, TB, and a massive number of infectious diseases without any means to treat and in many cases any understanding. We did it through a competent and dedicated Public Health system.
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