CDC Finally Admits COVID Mutations Hobbled Vaccine Effectiveness

The CDC has admitted what was ban-worthy ‘fake news’ just months ago – that Covid mutated to evade current vaccines which were created for the original strains, after nearly 40% of the people hospitalized in the US with Omicron were vaxxed and boosted.

As Bloomberg reports, from the end of March through May, when omicron BA.2 and BA.2.12.1 subvariants were the dominant strains, weekly hospitalization rates for all adults spiked, with those over 65 suffering the worst – though it should be noted that total omicron hospitalizations were far lower than when the delta variant was the dominant strain last fall.

Of course, the CDC’s timing is suspect – as vaccine manufacturers are on the cusp of rolling out their omicron-targeted shots by Labor Day.

We knew omicron evaded vaccines nearly 9 months ago, even if Fauci lied about it.

• Moderna President Warns Vaccines May Struggle To Protect Against Omicron (Dec. 2021)
• Pfizer Vaccine Less Effective Against Omicron Than Beta Variant, South Africa Study Reveals (Dec. 2021)
• Omicron evades immunity better than Delta, Danish study finds (January)

According to the ‘new’ report, CDC scientists found that vaccines and boosters did a better job against Delta when it came to keeping people out of the hospital – with efficacy dropping slightly with the BA.1 variant, and then ‘significantly’ falling off when BA.2 hit the scene.

Adults with at least two booster shots fared better than other people when BA.2 was dominant. The majority of those admitted to the hospital also had at least one underlying condition. Unvaccinated adults were more than three times as likely to be hospitalized, but breakthrough infections still represented a significant number of the severe Covid cases, the data show.

US regulators have pushed Moderna Inc., Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE to expedite development of omicron-specific boosters for a September rollout. The drugmakers this week submitted early data to the US Food and Drug Administration seeking emergency clearance for updated shots that target the BA.4 and BA.5 virus strains. Scientists and vaccinemakers are already beginning to look toward next-generation shots that may provide longer-lasting protection against more variants.  -Bloomberg

Stay tuned for more of tomorrow’s news today.