O Mi Cron(A) … Again
One of the contrarian clichés on Wall Street, considered a key to wealth generation, is to go against the crowd.
Alas, diligently mutating COVID-19 accommodates no such contrarianism. Medical advice has unyieldingly recommended vaccination and safe distancing. Admittedly, internecine conflicts may appear to interfere with a unanimity in guidelines. And now Omicron! The optimistic scenario seeks a path forward in building immunity as a formidable deterrent to the continued ravages of the virus.
The romantic in me dreams about near simultaneous immunization of the entirety of humanity to exorcise the pernicious curse.
The waning immunity and enduring antivaxer sentiment, however, leaves a door open for the virus. This evil will continue to haunt us. Forewarned and still harmed.
The entrenched views about debatable superiority of natural infection, personal invincibility, lack of institutional trust, political differences, socio-economic factors, faith-based belief in immunity from disease, etc., leave little room for flexibility.
Reason and evidence had an unparalleled and treacherous journey against the ticking clock in the rapidly spreading pandemic. It left enough room for disinformation to mutate and immunize the believers against logic. Lies, as they say, travel halfway around the world before truth has a chance to wear socks.
The fog of war is never conducive to clarity.
COVID-19 is relishing our Catch-22.
The spike protein loves the hate that’s consuming us.
It latches with reckless abandon to our Catch-22.
Fortunately, fog is thinning bit by bit.
The new mutations at the worst will yield to an antigen drift, a situation akin to the annual rite of passage with the flu virus.
It’s an antigen shift that ushers in a new pandemic. With luck, we will escape that calamity.
Omicron’s contagiousness, virulence and immune susceptibility are critical factors that are currently under urgent scientific scrutiny.
It’s not too steep a leap of faith to suggest that Omicron will escape, natural or vaccinated, immunity completely.
Biology dictates that evolution directionally attenuates virulence as a pathogen gains contagiousness.
The idea is to thrive in as many hosts without going Kamikaze and perish with the dead host. Defeats the purpose, you see. We should also take comfort in techniques and pharmaceutical measures developed expeditiously to neuter this menace.
When President Trump was afflicted with COVID-19, he became one of the first humans in the world to take MAB (monoclonal antibodies), as an experimental treatment, to fight the virus. And he lives to tell it.
I will be remiss if I failed to note that the technology used to develop MABs was a shared science with mRNA vaccines development.
Yet there is an intriguing inconsistency in acceptance of MABs versus vaccines by some.
The robust technology platform of mRNA-based vaccines allows a real-time opportunity to tweak vaccines to defeat mutations. Same goes for MABs that provide passive immune-therapy to the still non-immunized.
Science has evolved with the virus. With luck, the next dominant variant may lose some of its virulence. Hope is never a strategy. Unhinged optimism may be contrarian, but a cautiously sanguine approach beacons endemic sanity as a distinct possibility.
And yes, get the booster!
Dr. Brij Bhambi specializes in cardiac and vascular intervention, nuclear cardiology, consultative and general cardiology and holds board certification in interventional cardiology, cardiovascular disease and internal medicine. He is a chief medical officer at Bakersfield Heart Hospital.