Theres no new information in this article but it’s interesting for a couple of reasons

First, in regard to omicron it admits the sub variants “are genetically different enough that they could have had their own Greek names. But for some reason, this did not happen, and the World Health Organization designated them as subvariants of Omicron.”
It’s essential to keep the brand name “Omicron” because that was sold to the public as being less dangerous (now known to be false) and suitable for herd immunity (it’s not - it’s exceptionally good at re-infection), so any newly named variant would destroy the illusion that Covid is ‘over’.

Second, the article points out the Wuhan strain had an R0 of 3.3, whereas the latest Omicron variant has an R0 of 18.6, ie it’s the most contagious virus ever along with measles.

Third, not only is the latest Omicron strain a ‘master at evading immunity’, “a Japanese research group found that in lab-based, cell-culture experiments, BA.4/5 was able to replicate more efficiently in the lungs than BA.2. In hamster experiments, it developed into more serious illness.”.

The article ends by noting that new Omicron specific vaccines are on the way (in trials). But given the number of anti-vaxxers and the fact that the ip will be locked up, Omnicron will surely evolve away from these and the vaccines will fail in the same way that the original ones did.

Its unusual to see an msm source be so blunt with the facts. I wonder how long society can continue amidst ever increasing death and long term damage while the fiction that ‘Covid is over’ competes with the fiction that it was always just like the flu. There must be some kind of tipping point…

  • MF_BROOM [he/him]
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    BA.2.75 is another one to keep an eye on, it's early but it might have a growth advantage over BA.5 :covid-cool:

      • MF_BROOM [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Well you can probably start betting that the time between dominant variants will keep decreasing, if Canada's data is any indication of the rest of the western world: https://nitter.net/DGBassani/status/1542991378073935877