What, Another Spike in the Coronavirus?

 

“The recent rise in COVID-19 cases and the emergence of the Omicron variant pose downside risks to employment and economic activity and increased uncertainty for inflation…  Greater concerns about the virus could reduce people’s willingness to work in person, which would slow progress in the labor market and intensify supply-chain disruptions.”                                 Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in testimony before Congress  

The family of coronaviruses, from SARS and MERS to COVID-19 (the latter is formally identified as SARS-CoV-2), are so named because of the shapes/shafts/bumps protruding on their surface (outer envelope or “corona” – Latin for crown). “Those bumps are known as spike proteins. They’re actually glycoproteins. That means they contain a carbohydrate (such as a sugar molecule)… [These] spike proteins work a bit like shape-shifting lock picks. They can change shape to interact with a protein on the surface of human cells. Those spike proteins latch the virus onto a cell. This allows them to get entry into those cells.

“On February 19, 2020, researchers described the 3-D structure of the spike protein on the novel coronavirus behind the 2020 global pandemic. This confirmed that the new virus’s spike protein also is a shape-shifter. What’s more, it clings to its target on human cells 10 to 20 times as tightly as the SARS spike protein does to the same target. Such a tight grip may help the COVID-19 virus spread more easily from person to person, researchers now say.” ScienceNewsforStudents.org (11/10/20). 

 

Messenger Ribonucleic Acid (mRNA) vaccines, like Pfizer and Moderna, effectively “teach” the human body’s own intrusion fighting cells (like T and B cells) what to look for by creating an inert shape that mirrors that spike protein. The body’s own systems learn to recognize that toxic shape and attack it. “The spike protein is unique to SARS-CoV-2 – it doesn't look like other proteins your body makes. So antibodies created against the spike protein won't harm your body, they will only target coronavirus.” NebraskaMed.com, July 2nd. That second vaccine shot was intended to reach those of the body’s intrusion-fighting cells that missed “the first lesson” and to make up for those older fighting cells that have worn out, reflected in reduced immunity over time. 

 

The current booster is more of the same, but a necessity as this novel coronavirus continues to mutate. There have literally been thousands of mutations (shape-shifting), but only a few of those have evolved into a meaningful threat. As they say, only the strong survive. As millions of human beings are walking around without having been vaccinated, humanity has become a gigantic Petri dish of viral self-generated experimentation, mostly random with mostly no real impact, that has brought us the gift of mutations like the Delta and now the Omicron variants. Delta’s spikes altered from prior incarnations of the virus just enough to accelerate their penetration, their “grip” if you will, on and into human cells. A lot. Faster and deeper penetration allows the virus time to work its misery earlier and faster… increasing transmission rates impacting how contagious the variants have become.

 

We don’t know much about Omicron… yet. Are the changes in the spikes the only structural change in the virus? We believe that Omicron’s spikes (pictured above) have evolved to increase their effective penetration into human cells, hence a more virulent transmission rate. Has the rest of the virus raised its toxicity to increase the danger of an infection? We don’t know. While there is a strong belief that the Omicron spikes are sufficiently similar to past versions of those spikes, hence our existing vaccines are probably at least partially effective against this variant, we really are not certain. Will the Omicron variant be strong enough to replace the Delta version as the dominant variant? We also do not know that.

 

These questions plague us all. “The sudden emergence of Omicron — the dystopian-sounding new coronavirus variant with dozens of mutations that could help it spread more rapidly and partially sidestep our hard-won immune defenses, or not — has ushered in the most disorienting phase of the pandemic since COVID-19 first materialized two winters ago… ‘It’s been about 20 months since we’ve been in a fog-of-war situation [with] the pandemic,” evolutionary biologist Carl Bergstrom tweeted Sunday [11/28]. ‘But we’re back there with Omicron.’” Yahoo News, November 30th. 

Travel bans, which just delay the inevitable, and national lockdowns are rising all over the world. President Biden preaches “concern but not panic” as scientists look for answers over the next few weeks, even as the US is not experiencing Omicron... yet. It will. Most experts fear a winter surge is mounting. Unvaccinated human beings prevent the kind of containment we need to sustain an economic recovery. Clearly, given the shape-shifting realities of this virus, “natural immunity,” especially that acquired a while ago, is not a justifiable solution. Our medical community is positing a possible annual (or more frequent) booster reality, with vaccines tailored for the virus’ emerging proclivities, for the foreseeable future. While there are treatments being generated, still awaiting FDA approval, clinical trials have revealed some serious potential side-effects. 

If there is fault to be assessed, it has to be laid at the feet of those with access to a viable vaccine who, for political or misguided and misinformed conspiracy theory reasons, refuse that clearly superior preventative, and those elected officials, most of whom are themselves vaccinated, who encourage vaccine resistance. There appears to be no short or medium-term return to economic normalcy without those previously unwilling to get vaccinated to change their minds and embrace compassion, to those vulnerable individuals in our society, by not becoming carriers and Petri dishes of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I cannot believe how so many anti-vaxxers, encouraged by “whatever works to get votes” politicians, have embraced such callous selfishness that they do not care who gets infected by their disregard of medical reality.