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 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.
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.
Epoch Times… I forget, is that CCP or Falun Gong? Edit: @anon61221983 got it. Falun Gong. It tends to circulate around Toronto’s Union Station.
This story seems to be originating with the Daily Mail and doing the rounds on the more breathless news sites. At least they link to the research.
Usual caveats about using mice, these are ones that specifically express the ACE2 gene, so can catch COVID.
All procedures were performed in a biosafety level 3 (BSL3) facility at the National
Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories of the Boston University using biosafety protocols
approved by the institutional biosafety committee (IBC).
So the research is real, but I’m not sure that it is particularly unusual.
According to this quote from the University in the Boston Herald, the 80% death rate is actually less than the 100% death rate for these mice from the ancestral virus.
Seriously, the framing is bullshit. This is legit and important research, and there is no need for panic.
The Daily Heil (as some of the British Mutants here like to call it) quoted is already a red flag. The headline is pure clickbait. And the end of the article makes it clear that the news outlet has an CT agenda.
At least they link to the research.