New Covid Variants Expected This Fall
Multiple Vaccines, Updated Booster Shots Available
We are all heartily sick of the covid 19 virus, but the virus doesn’t care. Doctors and experts are predicting a new wave of covid to hit the country this fall because there are already new variants out there. This covid is an ingenious shapeshifter that keeps modifying itself to make earlier shots and boosters not as effective.
We can wish and hope and pray it will go away for good, but it apparently is here to stay as a regular feature of our lives. The good news is that the overall rate and deadliness of covid has been blunted, if not eradicated this year. Far fewer people are getting hospitalized or dying from covid this year, but are still getting very sick from covid.
Multiple vaccines, updated booster shots, more natural immunity because more people have already been infected, and more awareness of the risks, in general, are all effective if we stay the course. We need to stay on top of this disgustingly persistent virus and not let our guard down.
Moderna, for example, recently announced a new bivalent shot that should be more durable and long-lasting for this fall. They are predicting the new shot is so strong it may provide protection for up to a year. Pfizer is working on their own bi-valent booster, RSVpreF to combat RSV or Respiratory Syncytial Virus which causes acute respiratory illness.
The hope is that we will all be much safer if we can cut the covid pandemic down to the status of an endemic, which does not mean that covid will magically disappear. The hope is that we can then mostly protect ourselves with a yearly shot, like the flu shot most of us already get every year.
The newest variants include BA. 2.75 which is proving very effective at evading immunity because of mutations in the spike protein. BA.5 has already cut a wide swath in the US over the summer. BQ.1.1 is considered especially evasive with a possible growth rate of 14% over BA5 and may make inroads this fall.
You get the picture. This all sounds like alphabet soup to most people, including me. All these obscurely named variants are evolving every time a new booster shot comes out. Have you had any friends that have caught covid this summer? I have, and they were all surprised.
They all had their requisite shots and boosters, but the new variants were able to elude them. Again, the death rate and hospitalization rates are definitely falling, but not fast enough to prevent people from catching the covid altogether. But we can’t stop fighting.
Now that the colder weather is arriving, combined with the annual holiday season, more people will be spending time together indoors, where the virus is more dangerous. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day will all be prime targets for the risk of infection by the coronavirus.
So what can we do about it? Nobody wants to contract covid, especially not over the holidays. Hopefully, people will keep getting the new latest booster shots as soon as possible, probably in November. Hate to say it, but wearing masks is being urged again at these popular holiday gatherings, especially the N95 or KN95 closer-fitting masks being recommended.
The smaller the event, the less likelihood of major transmissions breaking out. Keeping a safe distance from others is still being urged. Home testing kits, free to the general public through the post office and other government sites will still be needed.
We are so much closer to turning this pandemic into an endemic, but we are not there yet. Close, but no cigar. Patience is still a virtue. Prevention by any and all means is still necessary. We all know the drill by now. Test yourself 1–3 days before any family gatherings, and after you get back home. Try to gather outside if at all possible.
We will beat this damnable virus, but we are not quite there yet. Stay aware.
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