Is Omicron Evading Immunity?

"All [U.K.] systems and teams are on standby to run the analysis, but my sense is we are still a long way from that number [the requirement for an accurate analysis to have at least 200 Omicron-infected individuals for an effective study]."

"So we depend on South Africa [to provide an earlier analysis given their large and growing number of Omicron-infected population]."

Meaghan Kall, lead epidemiologist in COVID-19, U.K. Health Security Agency

"Viruses do not inevitably evolve to become less virulent over time. If this has happened with Omicron -- and it's too early to tell whether it has -- it would be a matter of good fortune."

"Many viruses do not attenuate [reduce in force] over time. Influenza remains far worse than a common cold. Measles, even more so. Smallpox, worse yet."

"This is unlikely to be a factor for COVID, [the virus becoming less lethal over time] where death occurs weeks after the transmission causes."

"To paraphrase and generalize [the study], virulence is often not so much a matter of evolutionary fine-tuning as a matter of s--- happens."

Professor Carl Bergstrom, theoretical and evolutionary biologist, University of Washington, Seattle 

Medics at an infectious-disease unit in South Africa, where a new strain of COVID is spreading quickly.  Credit: Alet Pretorius/Gallo Images/Getty

The world sits on tenterhooks, awaiting word on whether the latest mutated SARS-CoV-2 variant Omicron, is more virulent than its predecessors. Virulence denotes the capacity of a pathogen to inflict harm on any it infects. It is Omicron's potential for damage at a steeper level than the currently most infectious strain, Delta, that grips the painful imagination of health experts and the governments they represent, to fully understand the new threat before them, presaging their population-protective responses. 

Should the investigation into the properties of the new 'variant of interest' turn out to be relatively mild, the current restrictions imposed speedily on news of its presence and spread, are certain to be revoked. Should the variant present as more transmissible, more deadly, the world has good reason to cringe in distress. All the more so should it prove it can bypass the protection the current vaccines are noted for, as a lifeline to the future.

To arrive at a fairly definitive answer to the questions revolving around Omicron, scientists require "several hundred" confirmed Omicron cases that they could track from the time of infection to its finish.  This is a process whose timing and revelations thereof lie in the spike region of the virus now spreading in numbers throughout southern Africa and beyond. According to early reports from South Africa, hospital cases rose sharply in the province most affected, quadrupling from 134 to 580 in two weeks' time.

And on the other hand, news from primary care doctors in South Africa speak of symptoms in Omicron patients being unusual, but mild. Since it is yet early days that assessment may be altered as the virus spreads into older age groups. At present, however, nothing appears to be particularly frightening as far as symptoms and early outcomes are concerned. With hard data missing for now, evolutionary biologists have been explaining the type of evolutionary pressures facing the virus, and how they may impact humanity.

First off, they have cautioned there is no reason to believe that gains in the virus transmissibility equates to a lessening of its virulence. Professor Bergstrom, as an example, warns against the thought that viruses evolve to become less virulent "to keep their hosts alive and thereby transmit more". The Alpha and Delta variants are both more transmissible and more dangerous than was the original virus that they overtook. In the process, the natural reproduction rate of the virus grew from a median estimate of 2.79 in 2020 to 5.08 with today's Delta.

 

Pedestrians wearing face masks against the coronavirus walk along Regent Street in London, Nov. 30, 2021.   (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

 

And as such, risks of ending up in hospital in the U.K and dying has commensurately increased with the evolved virus. Alpha and Delta, on the other hand emerged when immunization achieved through natural infection aftermath and also vaccination was at a lower state than at present. High immunization, including vaccinations on the increase worldwide has resulted in the viruses' selective pressures altering the way it evolves.   

Given the number of mutations that have evolved in Omicron's spike it seems the virus has focused on evading human immunity. What has also been realized by investigators is the randomness exhibited by the virus. Viral evolution can be "short sighted", according to an academic paper dating back to 1994, and highlighted by Dr.Bergstrom, with pathogens becoming far more dangerous with no advantage gained to the pathogen as a result. Bacterial meningitis, he points out, a classic example.

 

 

A number of countries are tightening travel restrictions over fears about the new COVID-19 variant called Omicron. Image: REUTERS/Loren Elliott

"Viruses kill host cells and damage host tissues when replicating [within the human body]. Thus, a pathogen that is better at replicating within hosts, spreads more virions in the environment, and hence transmits better and generally tends to be intrinsically more virulent."

"A virus replicating in the upper airways could be highly transmissible yet fairly benign to its host. [But] a viral strain replicating within organs [lungs, kidneys] is expected to cause extensive damage."

"If we're unlucky, Omicron's ability to [re]infect immunized hosts doesn't significantly impact its high replication rate [-and the damage it causes to host tissues]."

"If we're a bit lucky, its ability to [re]infect immunized hosts does reduce its replication rate, and hence would be expected to cause, on average, less severe symptoms, send fewer people into hospital and reduce fatality rates."

Francois Balloux, director, UCL Genetics Institute, professor of computational biology, University College London

Woof! Not To Worry

"I get so many questions about this issue."

"Will there be a vaccine? When will there be a vaccine?"

Dr.Elizabeth Lennon, veterinarian, University of Pennsylvania 

"It doesn't look like cats or dogs would ever be a reservoir for this virus."

"We believe that if there weren't sick people around them, they would not be able to continue spreading it from animal to animal -- it would not continue to exist in their population."

"The best way to prevent SARS-CoV-2 in our pets is to prevent the disease in people."

"So please get vaccinated."

Dr.Jeanette O'Quin, veterinarian, Ohio State University

Science

 

Jaguars are being inoculated against COVID-19, so are bonobos, orangutans and otters, ferrets and fruit bars, at various zoos in the past year, as cases have erupted among them. Billions of people worldwide are now vaccinated against COVID-19, with billions more yet to go. The global medical community and government agencies are working around the clock to ensure that as many populations become inoculated against infections by the coronavirus as possible to present a united front against a frequently-deadly pathogen.

Cat or dog vaccines have been developed; those initial vaccines were then deployed to vaccinate zoo animals. But the issue of having a vaccine against COVID available for household pets appears for the time being and perhaps for the foreseeable future, a dead issue, so to speak. Not so much to ignore a need, or to leave the impression that dearly beloved household companion pets are no one's concern, but because experience has shown that though cats (more so than dogs) and dogs can acquire the infection, they readily rise above it.

Simply put: not a priority. Household pets display few symptoms of COVID, some, like their human counterparts, are asymptomatic and most cases are very mild. When at first it was imagined that a pet pandemic could arise, the possibility of developing a dog/cat-specific vaccine appealed to Zoetis, a veterinary pharmaceutical company in New Jersey, and work began on producing a vaccine candidate. There were, in fact, four promising candidates by fall of 2020.

And then it became obvious to researchers that after all, the issue of pets being infected would not be likely to pose a serious threat to either animals or people. One study of 76 pets living with people who had developed COVID saw 17.6 percent of cats and 1.7 percent of dogs testing positive for COVID and 82.4 percent of the infected pets showed no symptoms.

The most common effect on pets infected with the virus are fairly mild symptoms including lethargy, coughing, sneezing, runny noses or diarrhea. Typically the infected pet makes a full recovery without the need of any treatment. Nor is there strong evidence that cats or dogs may spread the virus to humans. All these factors convinced experts a vaccine for pets was unnecessary.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture which regulates veterinary medicine in the US, announced in November of 2020 that it would not accept applications for cat or dog vaccines "because data do not indicate such a vaccine would have value". At the same time the possibility is not discounted that at some future date it is possible that changes in the virus could mandate that a pet vaccine be given wide use.

Panic-Coping With Omicron

"In the presence of Delta, for those who are not fully vaccinated yet, there is no escape." 

"You either get immune through vaccination -- that's the easy way -- or through infection -- that's the risky way."

"The vaccines provide excellent protection against serious disease, but immunity will decrease a bit over time. Therefore, a third dose will start to be important first in older age groups and the most vulnerable people who are already eligible for the shot. And if we think about continued control of the pandemic, then also younger age groups will need to get a third shot."

"We don't know yet where the sweet spot is, what kind of age cut-off we want to use. But the shots will not only protect everybody better against hospital and ICU admission and death, but also provide neutralizing immunity against infection. That means you have antibody levels that are so high that even if the virus enters the body, it's immediately caught and neutralized by the immune system's IgG antibodies."

"In the presence of this new Omicron variant, anyone who can get a third dose should get one immediately because every additional improvement of the immune response will be even more important for Omicron than for Delta."

Dr.Peter Juni, epidemiologist, scientific director, Ontario COVID-19 Science Advisory Table 

"[Most of the mutations appear to be in similar regions as those in other variants]. That  tells you that despite those mutations existing in other variants the vaccines have continued to prevent serious disease as we've moved through Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta."

Professor Andrew Pollard, director, Oxford Vaccine Group

Only about 24% of South Africans have been fully vaccinated so far   Reuters

 

The Delta strain of COVID-19 has devastated the international community by the speed of its spread, causing Europe and India to grapple yet again with another surge in cases, overwhelming hospitals, bringing lockdowns when populations feel themselves fed up with the strict rules meant to make them safer from contracting the pathogen, but infuriating them nonetheless after almost two years of abnormal social distancing, hampering employment and social life, causing people to defy the authorities and march in angry protests.

And just when government and medical authorities were feeling hopeful of being able finally to relax vigilance and allow society to return to some semblance of normalcy, they're faced with the prospect of an even more infectious strain of the disease and all the complications that fact bears with it. A growing host of countries including the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Iran, Japan, Thailand and the European Union have announced the imposition of restrictions on countries in southern Africa.

Out of South Africa in mid-week came warning from the the medical community of the appearance of a mutated strains of COVID. There have been hundreds of SARS-CoV-2 mutations, most of them fairly benign, but several identified by the World Health Organization as 'variants of concern' in recognition of their complicating properties; infectiousness and less susceptibility to the protective properties of vaccines have given good cause for concern in the havoc they've caused.

The new strain, however, as a variant of concern has caused more than the usual stir among medical professionals and governments. It has been diagnosed with over 30 mutations, and the advantages in infectiousness seen in Delta have been eclipsed by this new mutated strain. Apprehension is high, and so are reactions. To the extent that South Africa is indignant at the response, effectively closing it off from the rest of the world temporarily; in effect hinting their good deed in warning of the new strain has cost them too dearly.  

"What is going on right now is inevitable, it's a result of the world's failure to vaccinate in an equitable, urgent and speedy manner. It is as a result of hoarding [of vaccines] by high-income countries of the world, and quite frankly it is unacceptable." 

"These travel bans are based in politics, and not in science. It is wrong... Why are we locking away Africa when this virus is already on three continents?"

Ayoade Alakija, co-chair, African Union vaccine delivery alliance

The World Health Organization itself warned against the shutdown of flights from southern Africa despite increasing evidence appearing that give warning the variant has already begun to spread internationally. Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong and Germany -- and most recently Canada -- have all now reported cases of Omicron identified in those countries, brought by travellers having arrived from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Lesotho, Mali, or Eswatini. And doubtless more will follow.

In the Netherlands, 61 passengers on two flights from South Africa, of a total of 500 travellers were diagnosed with COVID, leaving, authorities to begin testing for the new variant. The WHO labelled Omicron a variant of concern in reflection of its high number of mutations along with early evidence it carries a higher degree of infection than do other variants. People who had contracted COVID-19 and recovered might contract it again, potentially in this new form.

Because the variant is so new, it will take weeks before more details are known about it; just how infectious it is, how much of a load it carries, how its symptoms manifest, and whether current vaccines are resistant to a high degree to its incursion. Pfizer announced its confidence that it would be producing an Omicron-specific vaccine in no more than several weeks' time. 

 

It is largely the uncertainty surrounding the new variant that has health authorities on edge. And that so many countries have taken to excluding flights from the source countries speaks to their determination to avoid if at all possible, the presence of another highly infectious, threatening variant at a time when they are struggling with its somewhat less-infectious, less virally-loaded predecessor wreaking havoc anew all over Europe.

Add to that the critical time of year with far more indoor activities thanks to approaching winter. And with the approach of winter the oncoming Christmas season which will bring people together in social gatherings, which they missed last year. Isolation-weary populations yearn to return to their normal lifestyles when spontaneous reactions to social events, attendance at sports events, theatres, social gatherings were a routine part of their lives.

Now those actions are deemed to be reckless, leading to increased spread of the pathogen with all the resultant social chaos leading to hospitalization, serious illness and all too often, death. This is a pandemic that has taken over five million lives on a global scale, and growing steadily. All the vaccine manufacturers, from AstraZeneca, Moderna, Novavax to Pfizer have plans to adapt their vaccines to reflect the emergence of Omicron. 

According to some experts in the field, the emergence of this variant is apt illustration of rich countries having hoarded vaccines, a situation that threatens to prolong the pandemic, with fewer than 6 percent of people in Africa having been fully immunized, leaving them vulnerable to the ravages of the disease, along with millions of health workers and poorer populations yet to receive even a first dose. Giving the virus ample opportunity to converge on this unvaccinated human playground and mutate endlessly. 

Passengers walk through the arrivals area at London's Heathrow Airport on November 26, after the UK suspended flights from several nations in southern Africa.

Validating Confirmation in Vaccine Effectiveness

"What  it shows is that if you're vaccinated you'll definitely be in the minority of people who end up with an infection, end up in hospital or end up dying."

"It 's the prevention of bad outcomes like death that the vaccine does an amazing job at, upwards of 90 to 95 percent."

"The rate of infections in vaccinated people is extraordinarily low ... and you're not taking into account that it was a much larger number that contributed to those infections."
"That leaves about 46 percent or so who are people who are eligible for the vaccine, but aren't vaccinated yet. Getting that population -- the ones who are eligible and easily vaccinated -- would go a long, long way [to reaching a state of herd immunity]."

"There's a strong argument that 50 and older is where we want to look as we have enough vaccine [to administer the third, 'booster' dose for maximum efficacy against COVID]."

"Obviously the most important thing is to get everyone vaccinated. That's No.1, but we're reaching a threshold where trying to [reach] that further bit is difficult."

Dr.Gerald Evans, infectious-disease specialist, Queen's University, Kingston

Drive-thru clinic,Kingston.  CP/Lars Hagberg

According to a newly published study from Public Health Ontario, unvaccinated people account for 90.9 percent of all COVID-19 hospitalizations in the province, and 90.2 percent of all deaths due to the coronavirus. Fully vaccinated people in SARS-CoV-2 breakouts account for a mere 2.7 percent of hospitalizations and 3.3 percent of deaths, according to the report's data. The study represents the most detailed investigation yet of the effectiveness of the     COVID-19 vaccines, both at preventing infections and in limiting severe outcomes.

Data was examined from December 14, 2020 when the first vaccinations were rolled out in the province -- until November 14, including early stages of booster doses for the most vulnerable people in the province. Unvaccinated individuals, measured in the 30 days before the release of the study, were 4.8 times more likely to contract COVID than were fully vaccinated people, according to the study results.

Making up 91.7 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the province, those who remain unvaccinated obviously receive the brunt of the casualties of COVID infections. Infections that hit fully vaccinated individuals -- known as "breakthrough cases" account for only 3.8 percent of infections, with fewer than 0.2 percent of infections occurring in people having received a third dose of vaccine. 

 

Among people aged 60 and over, data are particularly alarming; in that age group those unvaccinated are over 16 times likelier to end up in hospital, as opposed to someone who is fully vaccinated. Seniors for the most part who have received a third dose -- which encompasses those over age 70, the immunocompromised and their caregivers at this juncture -- account for less than 0.2 percent of hospitalizations and under 0.1 percent of deaths.

 

"Yes, you could get infected if you're fully vaccinated, particularly if you're hanging out with someone who is infected and unvaccinated -- and that's what we're beginning to see because there is more soci8alizing going on since we're all desperate for it. But we know that the ultimate outcome is not going to be as bad", advised Dr.Evans. Of 11,154,162 Ontarians fully vaccinated by mid-November, 17.596 had undergone a breakthrough infection. 

 

Current vaccination rate in the province stands at about 78 percent of the entire population. Children aged five to 11 represent roughly 30 percent, with eligibility to receive pediatric doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine just ratified. Under age four children are not eligible for inoculation, accounting for about 15 percent of the unvaccinated.

 

Experience in Israel and some parts of the United States provide reliable evidence of the utility in expanding the third, booster dose of vaccine to the over-50 group: "Over age 50, you start to see a benefit to third doses", Dr.Evans explained.

 

Restricted Flights? Because Its Necessary, South Africa

"This new variant of the COVID-19 virus is very worrying. It is the most heavily mutated version of the virus we have seen to date."

"Some of the mutations that are similar to changes we’ve seen in other variants of concern are associated with enhanced transmissibility and with partial resistance to immunity induced by vaccination or natural infection."

Professor Lawrence Young, virologist, Warwick University, Britain

 

"What we do know is there's a significant number of mutations, perhaps double the number of mutations that we have seen in the Delta variant."

"And that would suggest that it may well be more transmissible and the current vaccines that we have may well be less effective." 

British Health Secretary Sajid Javid

Passengers walk past artwork between terminals at IAH George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. REUTERS/Adrees Latif

The dread likelihood of a more virulent, transmissible, vaccine-avoidance mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 emerging at some point in the trajectory of variants mutating from variants was always thought by scientists to be a matter of time, although they also hoped that opportunities for such a mutation to develop might be mitigated by the speed with which pharmaceutical companies developed effective, safe vaccines against COVID. It looks now that among the known 'variants of concern', one is now swiftly spreading that may resemble the dreaded apparition.

A newly identified variant out of South Africa is being watched with rising concern within the global medical community with the fearful trepidation that its properties may result in seeing highly successful vaccines far less effective when countering the new strain. The immediate course of action has been to shut the door of opportunity to the virus in the hope that travel restriction imposed on seven African countries where the new variant has been identified, would stem its course.

 

People queue to get vaccinated against COVID-19 at a shopping mall in Johannesburg on Friday. South African scientists doing genomic sequencing said on Tuesday they detected a new coronavirus variant. (Denis Farrell/The Associated Press)

 

Britain has taken immediate steps to temporarily ban flights from South Africa and six other African countries and mandating that returning British travellers from these very destinations go into immediate and strict quarantine. According to the U.K. Health Security Agency, the variant, labelled B.l.l.529 on an interim basis, boasts a spike protein far different to the original coronavirus that the composition of the COVID-19 vaccines are based on.

Leading to the concern that its mutations are likely to be able to evade the immune response generated through prior infection as well as through inoculation with current vaccines. Investigators are awaiting the opportunity to collect additional data, but as a precautionary move reflecting lab studies required to assess the likelihood of greatly reduced vaccine efficacy of the mutations, the travel restrictions were viewed by scientists as a necessary step.

The British government was advised to react without delay, pre-emptively, should the concerns of the variant impact be borne out, regardless of the fact that it could take a matter of weeks-long investigations for all the information required to shine a light of understanding on the new variant's characteristics to be collected and adequately assessed. 

 

Scientists in South Africa announced their detection of the new COVID-19 variant in limited numbers and were involved in efforts to better comprehend its potential implications. The World Health Organization has praised the South African scientists for their quick detection and timely warning to the international community. 

Diagnostic laboratories' early studies of the variant suggest it has increased its presence rapidly in the most populated province of Gauteng, and the expectation is that it may be present in the country's other eight provinces, according to the announcement by the South African scientists. Up to a day previous there was confirmation of the presence of 100 specimens identified as B.l.l.529, in South Africa.

 

Europe and the U.K. imposing travel restrictions against southern Africans because of the emergence of a new coronavirus variant is 'unjustified,' says South African Health Minister Dr. Joe Phaahla. (Jerome Delay/The Associated Press

 

To the present, the variant has also been found in Botswana and Hong Kong; the Hong Kong case a traveller from South Africa. Scientists in South Africa now speculate that up to 90 percent of new cases in Gauteng could be B.l.l.529. "Although the data are limited, our experts are working overtime with all the established surveillance systems to understand the new variant and what the potential implications could be", explained a statement from South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Following Britain's decision to close to flights from the seven African countries, the European Union followed suit, followed closely by the United States and Canada. Israel, which identified a case of the new variant in an Israeli arrival returning from a trip to the African continent, has done likewise. As concern over the presence of the new, threatening variant, India, Japan, Turkey, Switzerland the United Arab Emirates have also taken cautionary measures to impose tougher travel curbs.

Dr. Isaac Bogoch says it's important to understand the new coronavirus variant, and equally important to get people around the world vaccinated. Credit: AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazh

 

Directed High Energy Microwave Mystery

"At this time, we do not know the cause of these incidents, which are both limited in nature and the vast majority of which have been reported overseas."

"We also do not know whether they constitute an attack of some kind by a foreign actor, but these are areas of active inquiry."

US Administration official

 

"We are bringing to bear the full resources of the U.S. government to make available first-class medical care to those affected and to get to the bottom of these incidents, including to determine the cause and who is responsible."

US President Joe Biden 

"At this time we do not know the cause of specific incidents."

"These are areas of active inquiry. There is nothing that the Department takes more seriously than the safety, health and welfare of our personnel serving around the globe in defense of our values and freedoms."

Army Lt. Col. Thomas Campbell, Defense Department spokesman

 

"We simply couldn’t get the intelligence community and others to focus and really admit there was a problem."

"It was extremely frustrating, I must say. I hope now it’s not too late."

Former US Administration national security adviser, John Bolton

William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  Getty Images

 It is a vexing mystery; could there be some strange new weapon in the hands of America's enemies? If so they appear to regard Canada in the same vein. Neither country enjoys good relations with either Russia or China and for similar reasons. American diplomats and intelligence officers abroad have been targeted by what is called Havana Syndrome because the strange affliction surfaced there first, in 2016, when both American and Canadian diplomats began complaining of some mysterious high-powered sound affecting their senses and their brains, leaving some with lasting brain injuries.

The syndrome is ongoing, it continues to mystify and to target victims. The source is as yet unknowable, and the weapon itself remains unknown. A report produced by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine had the impression through some observed brain injuries that they were consistent with effects generated by directed microwave energy. And, noted the report, Russia has been studying the science for some time.

 

Then there is the impression of a team of medical and scientific experts studying the symptoms of up to forty State Department and other government employees, concluding in admitting the absolutely puzzling unfamiliarity of the syndrome since in their experience nothing comparable had been documented previously in medical literature. And there are those who believe the source could be psychosomatic; induced by stress. 

 

For those who have been physically affected there is nothing imaginary about the symptoms and the feeling first experienced when something began to go dreadfully awry with their senses and perceptions leaving them with headaches, inability to concentrate, loss of memory, impacted sense of balance, among other symptoms of a vicious intrusion into their suddenly-unhealthy brains.

 

Recently CIA Director William Burns, in a visit to Moscow early in the month raised the issue with the leaders of Russia's Federal Security Service, the FSB, and the country's Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVB. Informing them frankly that whoever was causing American personnel and their family members to suffer severe brain damage and allied physical ailments debilitating to their normal state of health would have transgressed the bounds of international interactions.

 

This targeting of individuals for whatever purpose and leaving them seriously injured, unable to get on with their day-to-day lives, incapable of resuming their professions, would be demonstrating unacceptable behaviour at variance with any "professional intelligence service".  He carefully avoided leaving the impression that Russia was being faulted as the source of the troubling phenomenon that the U.S. officially names "anomalous health incidents" (AHIs).

 

 

Moscow, of course, denies that it could be involved in any such skulduggery. But Mr. Burns' discussion of the troubling events revealed that the U.S. government remains unable to determine cause, much less source. The unusual and varied symptoms range from headaches and vision problems to dizziness and brain injuries. Canada responded by cutting its staff in Havana, but a year ago ramped staff numbers back up, reflecting their stated belief there had been no new cases since 2018.

Which led to nine diplomats who served in Havana publicly disputing the government's allegations. On their experience since March of 2020, 25 Canadian diplomats were evaluated for potential brain injury. And Canadian diplomats are anything but satisfied with the way their government and their Global Affairs department have handled the situation; some having gone to the U.S. for tests and evaluations and medical help on their own, when none was proffered in Canada.

The driving primary purpose of the American senior intelligence executive's trip to Moscow was for the purpose of placing the Kremlin on notice that Washington was aware and concerned over Russia's troop buildup on Ukraine's border. The message was that the U.S. was not prepared to tolerate a military attack on Ukraine. His personal appearance as head of the CIA was to impress on Moscow the seriousness with which the U.S. views the matter.

The CIA Director minced no words in describing the incidents, naming them as "attacks", though he went light on the suspicion of many in the U.S. administration that the attacks are suspected to be the work of Russian operatives. Still other officials attribute them to a psychogenic illness hitting individuals operating in high-stress environments. 

Two months earlier an intelligence officer accompanying Director Burns to India reported symptoms of Havana Syndrome, requiring medical attention. The incident was interpreted by some as a message to the CIA leader that those of his stature are themselves not exempt from being targeted, wherever they happen to be. With over 200 health incidents having been reported around the globe in the pasu five years on every continent save Antarctica, no clear pattern explicating the attacks has surfaced.

 

"There is no doubt that the victims who have suffered brain injuries must be provided with adequate care and compensation."

"Further, it is critical that our government determine who is behind these attacks and that we respond."

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., co-chair, Senate intelligence panel

 

The Many Puzzling Outcomes of COVID

"It seems that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine initially induces higher levels of T-cells than the mRNA vaccines."

"These T-cells are important for long-term immune memory and also for inhibiting virus replication and killing infected cells once an infection becomes established."

"Since the AZ vaccine is slightly better at inducing these T-cells, the implication is that it may provide longer-term protection against hospitalization and death."

"I think this is the point that Dr.Soriot was making."

Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease, University of Edinburgh

A woman receives her covid-19 vaccination booster jab, London, UK  Leon Neal/Getty Images

The chief executive of AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot on Tuesday responded to a puzzle that scientists are mulling over. That while the defences of Europe are crumbling against COVID-19 with steadily mounting infections and deaths related to the coronavirus, Britain in contrast is managing to keep its serious cases relatively low in both hospitalizations and resulting deaths. The explanation he offered was that the Oxford vaccine produces a more durable T-cell response, which could be what is ensuring that older people in Britain are safer than their continental counterparts in the prevention of hospitalization and death.

Cases remain high in Britain, the country is struggling just like other parts of Europe, with rising numbers but hospitalization and death appears under a firmer control than elsewhere. The AstraZeneca vaccine has been hugely unpopular in Europe, viewed with great suspicion. Leading to France, Germany, Spain and Belgium restricting its use to those under 65 in the early roll-out stage. Suspicion was aroused that there was insufficient data to ensure it was effective in older people.

Now, Dr.Soriot suggests that data demonstrate the AstraZeneca shot offers long-term protection, with a response that appears more durable than the mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna. The data of which he speaks is not yet published and has not as a result been reviewed by any outside sources for whom it would be of consuming interest. T-cells, without a shadow of a doubt, have an important role to play in protection against COVID. Antibodies wane over time, but T-cells remain able to trigger powerful immune responses, and to directly destroy infected cells, as well to work against new variants.

Closed Christmas stands in the city centre, Vienna, Austria.  Lisa Leutner/AP/Shutterstock

The University of Birmingham in April found five weeks following a first dose people over 80 given AstraZeneca or Pfizer showed similar antibody responses. In the AstraZeneca  group, double T-cell response was observed. Along with the strength of the T-cell response held to be three times higher than for the Pfizer group. Oxford University researchers found, in mid-June a still robust T-cell response from AstraZeneca doses at six months that even with a single dose; antibody immunity drops aside.

Scientists from Oxford and Switzerland in July concluded that long-term immunity could be greater for adenovirus vaccines like AstraZeneca resulting from "cellular training camps" for T-cells that they create. On the other hand, in the long term, mRNA vaccines also produce strong T-cell responses, perhaps more so than AstraZeneca, according to more recent research. A new paper published in Nature found Pfizer produced close to a six times greater number of T-cells than AstraZeneca, some 18 to 42 days following the second dose.

Data collected in real-world situations consistently indicate that the mRNA vaccines gain a slight improvement in prevention of infection and avoidance of serious disease than does AstraZeneca, an inconsistency with claims better protection is provided by the Oxford vaccine. Another interpretation of the situation could be that Britain has had so much recent infection that COVID is near to becoming an endemic virus. In the United Kingdom the booster program began earlier so that at present over 12 million adults now have had their third, 'booster' dose, which is recognized as having prevented tens of thousands of deaths.

 

A wall in London commemorates people who died of COVID-19.  Credit: Toby Melville/Alamy/Reuters

Europe COVID Ridden, Locking Down

"It's like a luxury prison. It's definitely limited freedom and for me it's not great psychologically."

"People were promised that if they got vaccinated they would be able to lead a normal life, but now that's not true."

Sascha Jamkovyi, food sector entrepreneur, Vienna

Pedestrians walk at the city centre during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, as Austria's government imposed a general lockdown from Monday, in Salzburg, Austria, November 22, 2021. REUTERS/Lukas Barth

Austria now is the first country in Western Europe reimposing lockdown since inoculations first began in the country. Non-essential shops, bars and cafes are now shuttered as caseloads surge, making the continent's leaders fearful of a second straight winter where the entire continent will be in deep freeze, so to speak. Tighter restrictions are also on the way in Germany in an effort to control a record-setting wave of infections.

Europe is now again the epicentre of the global pandemic that caused lockdowns first in March of 2020. The imposition of new restrictions and new vaccine mandates are expected to affect more countries struggling with rising caseloads, marking the approach of the second full year of spreading infections since the SARS-CoV-2 viruses that causes COVID-19 first emerged in China.

Confirming her position on the need to begin another closing of society, Chancellor Merkel informed leaders of her conservative CDU party: "We are in a highly dramatic situation. What is in place now is not sufficient" to dampen rising COVID case numbers. An urgent message from Jens Spahn the German health minister for people to be vaccinated, followed his confidential assurance of certainty that by winter's end everyone in the country would be "vaccinated, recovered or dead"; a message geared to spell out dire consequences.

Workers dismantle a booth in Munich, the capital of Bavaria, which, like Saxony, has cancelled its Christmas markets to help control Covid-19. Photograph: Christof Stache/AFP/Getty Images

 

Austrians are being urged to work from home if at all possible; warning that restaurants, theatres and non-essential shops would be closed for a period of ten days. Citing a limited number of reasons for leaving home, such as attending school, going out to a workplace, shopping for essential products, or walking outdoors for exercise, Austrian authorities have made it clear that normal life habits must temporarily undergo change.

As of February 1st, in Austria, vaccinations will become compulsory, within a public where many remain skeptical of vaccinations, a suspicion of medical science encouraged by the far-right Freedom Party, third largest in parliament. Some 40,000 protesters were out on the streets in Vienna. In Brussels and across the Netherlands, protests turned violent over the weekend.

Unvaccinated people were banned from services, including going out to pubs and cafes and restaurants in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia. In Austria a third of the population remain unvaccinated, one of the highest unvaccinated rates in Western Europe, a situation that authorities blame for the COVID wave the country is currently struggling under.

 

Abandoned tables of a closed restaurant are seen in a street as the Austrian government imposed fourth national coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lockdown in Vienna, Austria, November 22, 2021. REUTERS/Lisi Niesner

Despite the imposition of a lockdown on the unvaccinated last week, daily infections continue rising far above the previous peak, leading to a full lockdown this week. In Berlin and other parts of Germany Christmas markets have opened for the first time in two years, but in states bordering Austria and the Czech Republic with Germany's highest case loads, stricter rules prevail with the cancellation of Christmas markets and barring the unvaccinated from restaurants and bars, along with night-time curfews.

Vaccination rates are lower still in Eastern European countries where some of the highest death tolls per capita in the world have been experienced. In countries like Bulgaria and Romania, hospitals are overrun with serious cases of COVID-19, the surging caseloads leaving medical personnel in a quandary of hopelessness over vaccine hesitancy.

Demonstrators protest against government COVID-19 restrictions during anniversary celebrations of the 1989 Velvet Revolution ending communist rule, Prague, Nov. 17, 2021.  AP Photo/Petr David Josek

Vaccine Hesitancy = Burgeoning Case Load

"This wave is far worse than the others -- it is like a war."

"The only real reason anyone is here is because they did not get vaccinated."

"Fear is the only thing that got the attention of the general population."

Dr.Anca Streinu-Cercel, Bucharest Hospital

 

"Fake news has a  huge influence on our population, and in Eastern Europe in general."

"[Under leaders like Nicolae Ceausescu] nobody trusted their neighbours, nobody trusted the authorities, nobody trusted anybody."

Colonel Valeriu Ghorghita, coordinator, Romania's vaccination drive

A Romanian woman, who recovered after being in severe condition, is helped by a nurse to prepare for moving in a normal section form the intensive care unit saloon, at the Covid-19 section of National Institute of Pneumology 'Marius Nasta', in Bucharest, Romania, 15 October 2021. [EPA-EFE/ROBERT GHEMENT]

Romania recently reported one of the highest per capita death rates from COVID-19, in the world. Making physicians like Dr.Streinu-Cercel sigh in weary exasperation in the knowledge that it could all have been avoided, with a strong uptake of vaccine from among the general population. Instead, hospital entries for COVID are burgeoning, and so is the death toll. 

In Romania, as has proven current elsewhere in the world, it is mostly the rural population that deigns not to be inoculated against the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine causing COVID-19. They are named as the crux of the pandemic's surge and are considered to be vaccine-hesitant. Just as a new wave of the coronavirus began suffocating Eastern Europe, word came down from On High to evade vaccination.

On the authority of the powers vested in him by the Orthodox Church, Bishop Ambrose of Giurgiu in the small Romanian town of Copaceni reassured his parishioners that there really is nothing to be concerned about over COVID. "Don't be fooled by what you see on TV -- don't be scared of     COVID", he soothed them, telling worshipers: "don't rush to get vaccinated".

This not the view of Patriarch Daniel in Bucharest, however. He instructs the faithful to sensibly listen to doctors. At the very time that local clerics denounce vaccines for the damning reason that they represent the work of the Devil. A message that is hugely influential in rural areas in particular which realize a vaccination rate half that of the cities.

In the capital Bucharest, there are signs with grisly photographs depicting seriously ill patients, representing a deliberate effort to shock people to face the reality of the situation. As a result of 'vaccine hesitancy', Romania  distinguishes itself with the second-lowest vaccination rate in Europe; roughly 44 percent of adults with at least one dose, behind only Bulgaria. The European Union's overall vaccination rate is a sturdy 81 percent. 

 

Colonel Ghorghita who leads his country's vaccination drive, does so in the hope that the army's influence in the matter would help the authorities succeed in increasing vaccination numbers to a safer overall level, because of all state institutions, the military in the country has the greatest respect. And following that institution is that of the Orthodox Church, so whatever the army advocates seems to be undone by the lower echelons of church authority.

People in the country are suspicious. "Everyone is suddenly an expert, and fake news is everywhere, 24 hours a day", explained Silvia Nica, head emergency doctor at Bucharest University Hospital. In the current crisis the hospital has erected a treatment tent and turned the hospital lobby into a COVID ward.

Bucharest communications professor Alina Bargaoanu notes that people spreading wild theories on social media initiated COVID disinformation, to eventually create a more widespread movement. Diana Sosoaca, an elected member of the country's upper house of Parliament denounces the pandemic is "the biggest lie of the century". She suspects a Russian hand in spreading alarm over vaccines.

And then turns her attention toward the United States where many conspiracy theories originate, which acts as a validating factor for the anti-vaccination movement happy to discredit Russia, and happier yet to trust anything coming out of the United States, because as Ms.Bargaoanu stated: "Romania is a very pro-American country".

"There was no [government] communication strategy whatsoever, and no education strategy. The only people communicating, and very effectively, are the anti-vaxxers and the negationist movements." 

"The truth is that this pandemic wave was left to peak completely unmitigated — and the whole burden was put on the hospitals."

Octavian Jurma, doctor and health statistician

Medical personnel in protective suits push a Corona intensive care patient from the a Romanian Air Force C-27 plane into a Bundeswehr intensive care ambulance on the tarmac at Hamburg Airport in Hamburg, Germany, Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021. (Gregor Fischer/dpa via AP)

 

 

Disappearing CPC Critics

"On November 17, China Global Television Network (CGTN), the international arm of the Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television, released the text of an e-mail, in English, purportedly written by Peng. In that message—correctly described by many as "creepy"—she said she was "fine." Peng also said the "news" released by the Women's Tennis Association "including the allegation of sexual assault, is not true." Almost nobody believes that the message is both authentic and not the result of coercion."

"Peng is not the only high-profile figure detained in recent months. Businessman Jack Ma, citizen journalists Zhang Zhan and Chen Qiushi, and celebrity Zhao Wei were all disappeared. Consider it a pattern."

Gordon Chang, Gatestone

The disappearance this month of tennis star Peng Shuai (pictured) has led many around the world to question the holding of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Now, only the morally bankrupt could think it is a good idea to allow the hostage-taking, rapist-protecting, genocide-committing Chinese regime to host this competition. (Photo by Wang He/Getty Images)

China, under Xi Jinping is known internationally for its quick temper, setting its diplomats free to use decidedly undiplomatic, insulting language when defending China's now-brittle reputation from its international critics. Under President Xi's direction the Chinese Communist Party now indulges in international abductions, popularly known as 'hostage diplomacy', detaining, imprisoning and charging foreigners in China on the pretext of protecting its national interests from malign forces, as a method of warning to other countries with which it has disagreements.

That Beijing also kidnaps its own citizenry as a method of restraint when they manage to become too 'individual', too influential and in any way, shape or form pose a potential challenge to the ruling party, they are 'disappeared' to silence them and to reduce the level of their influence. No one can escape, not even the man who is the proprietor and inventor of the popular social media sites operated through the tech giant Alibaba with its 800 million users, the multi-multi-billionaire, Jack Ma.

Jack Ma - seen here at an Alibaba event - is estimated to be worth more than $50bn  Getty Images

"The Alibaba founder had accused Chinese banks of operating with a "pawn-shop mentality". He had also claimed that the authorities were trying to "use the way to manage a railway station to manage an airport" when it came to regulating the new world of digital finance."

"These statements angered the banking establishment and reportedly reached the attention of President Xi Jinping." 

BBC

Add it all up; China's aggression in the East China Sea and the South China Sea, claiming disputed territories as its own, and threatening its neighbours who believe they have territorial rights to the land, sea and airways under dispute. Beijing's treatment in Xinjiang of millions of Uyghur Muslims, through 're-education' by incarcerating them in guarded isolation centres, sterilizing Uyghur women, sending men to other provinces as slave labour, among its many affronts to human rights. 

No other nation nor group of nations is able to confront and oppose Beijing's aggression without paying dearly for it. Some labour under that humiliating and costly, threatening condition of being punished by China; Australia knows how its wrath striking trade and diplomacy can sting, and so does Canada, among others. So why is the world prepared to beat a path of competition toward Beijing's hosting of the 2022 winter Olympics?

Its much admired three-time Olympic tennis star revealed on social media that a former vice-premier of China, helped by his wife, coerced her into a sexual relationship, and the torment that brought her. Her post was online for less than a half-hour before disappearing. And suddenly Peng Shuai too disappeared. Chinese state media has responded to the alarm and concern being expressed in the sport world, by assuring an international audience that all is well. It is debatable how many in China are aware of Peng's sudden absence through China's heavily censored internet.

"The statement released today by Chinese state media concerning Peng Shuai only raises my concerns as to her safety and whereabouts."

"The WTA and the rest of the world need independent and verifiable proof that she is safe. I have repeatedly tried to reach her via numerous forms of communication, to no avail."

Steve Simon, chairman, Women's Tennis Association

"Peng's recent so-called statement that 'everything is fine' should not be taken at face value as China's state media has a track record of forcing statements out of individuals under duress, or else simply fabricating them."

"These concerns will not go away unless Peng's safety and whereabouts are confirmed."

Doriane Lau, China researcher, Amnesty International

International Olympic Committee

Yet Again : Agreeing to Disagree Disagreeably

 

"His [accountant first widely thought the first COVID-19 patient reported his first symptoms December 16] symptom onset came after multiple cases in workers at Huanan Market, making a female seafood vendor there the earliest known case, with illness onset 11 December." 

"It becomes almost impossible to explain that pattern if that epidemic didn't start there."

Mchael Worobey, head, ecology and evolutionary biology, University of Arizona

"It [Woorobey's conclusion] is based on fragmentary information and to a large degree hearsay."

"In general, there is no way of verifying much of what he describes, and then concludes."

David Reiman, professor of microbiology, Stanford University

"I don't feel like anything can be concluded with high or even really modest confidence about the exact origin of SARS-CoV-2 in Wuhan, simply because the underlying data are so limited."

Jesse Bloom, computational biologist, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, Washington

Medical staff help a patient walk into the hospital in Wuhan, China, in January 2020 as the pandemic was beginning.   (Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Another study, this one published in the journal Science reflecting investigative work by Michael Worobey, head of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, concludes that by indications newly unearthed, the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 is unlikely to have been the result of a laboratory escapee, as many in the field of virology insist, implicating the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

 

This conclusion based on a new revelation that it was not an accountant with no link to the Wuhan markiet, but a market vendor who was the first COVID case.

 

Based on the mistaken belief that the accountant who was said to have reported his first symptoms appeared in actuality several days later than was initially believed, Dr. Worobey believes that most early symptomatic cases had links to the city's live-animal food market. He pointed at the western section as the locale of transmission where raccoon dogs were caged, believing the new timeline to be indicative of evidence of a live-animal market origin, where a zoonotic transfer took place from animal to human.

 

The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus has vexed medical science since the first cases appeared and in short order the virulent pathogen flew across geographic borders to infect the entire globe with utterly disastrous, and ongoing lethal effect, overturning the world social, political and economic order. Its origins' mystery and the manner in which China attempted to suppress news of its presence instead of instantly alerting the World Health Organization which would have led to a global warning, has caused cold-war-like tensions across continents.

 

A closely monitored and impacted joint study by China and the World Health Organization pretty well ruled out the prevailing suspicions that the COVID-19 origins lay in a laboratory located not far from the Wuhan market. The study, studiously managed by China, summed up a collaborative position on the origins as basically unknown, but unlikely to have originated from a lab escapee, to more likely having been transferred naturally via the wildlife trade to humans.

 

Researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology conduct experiments on corona viruses circulating commonly within bat colonies located in central and southern China. A focus had been concentrated on the laboratory as the locus of the virus which at some point escaped the confines of the high-security laboratory, where experts in the field are convinced an accidental leak from a research lab to be the most likely source of infection.

 

The article by Dr. Worobey and the conclusion drawn was received with skepticism from scientists who believe the quality of the data out of China on early coronavirus infections to be too incomplete to support any conclusion. The mystery of the origins of the dread virus that has robbed the world population of well over five million lives -- while crushing the global economy and changing the world as we know it, likely forever in the general agreement that the virus, now established, will remain a health threat to be dealt with on an ongoing basis -- continues.