BREAKING NEWS! Amidst Flawed COVID-19 Variant Monitoring And Fake Claims, New Preprint Suggest BA.2.86 Is More Transmissible And Possibly Wide Spread!
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Sep 10, 2023 1 year, 3 months, 2 weeks, 1 day, 20 hours, 49 minutes ago
BA.2.86 News: From time and again, we have been lied to many times in this ongoing COVID-19 pandemic by those controlling the COVID-19 narratives with paid help involving politicians, health authorities and agencies, mainstream media and wire agencies and the various American owned social media platforms.
These days, those controlling the COVID-19 narratives have not only bought up many unethical researchers and education institutions, but they also have many virologists, biostatisticians and even variant hunters under their control not to mention the hundreds of accounts on the X platform (formerly twitter) to help disseminate and influence the millions of stupids around the world!
When BA.2.86 first emerged, we were told that it was only causing asymptomatic or mild infections in individuals who were detected with the new BA.2.86 strain and that it was not that transmissible! Claims were that it was not causing any disease severity.
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/us-reports-another-ba286-covid-19-sequence
https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/whats-new/covid-19-variant.html
We were told that it was that immune evasive and that the new COVID-19 monovalent booster featuring the spike proteins of the XBB.1.5 variant that is shortly to be rolled out will be effective against the BA.2.86 variant.
https://edition.cnn.com/2023/09/03/health/covid-new-variant-pirola-early-lab-results/index.html
https://www.abc12.com/coronavirus/covid-19-variant-ba-2-86-may-be-less-contagious-and-immune-evasive-than-feared/article_c9e3fa8b-67ce-52eb-bbd8-16cba78ecac9.html
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/health-news/good-news-new-covid-19-variant-ba-2-86-may-be-less-contagious-and-less-immune-evasive-than-feared-lab-tests-find/photostory/103456149.cms?from=mdr
As of the last hour, there are now more than 107 genomic sequences of the BA.2.86 identified from samples of individuals infected with the new SARS-CoV-2 with a sizeable percentage hospitalized! Including waste water samples that have identified the presence of the BA.2.86 variant, there are now over 18 countries across the world where the BA.2.86 variant has been found.
In reality, as a result of no or low COVID-19 testing and also very low rates of genomic sequencing or none at all in certain countries, the BA.2.86 strain has already been spreading extensively in many countries and there could be hundreds of thousand of people already infected with the new strain and helping to spread the strain even more.
Fortunately to a
certain degree, latest data has shown that the BA.2.86 strain has a lower fusogenicity when compared to the XBB.1.5 variant …which implies that we have one less factor that contributes to disease severity.
https://twitter.com/yunlong_cao/status/1700676053457658140
https://twitter.com/yunlong_cao/status/1700676069920219154
However, we do not have full details about the pathogenesis of the BA.2.86 as yet and there are already speculations that it could also have evolved to utilize other human host receptors. Hence, there is a possibility that the BA.2.86 variant can cause disease severity in certain individuals with a certain type of profile or even genetic makeup and also cause more serious issues not during the acute infection phase but later!
Interestingly however, new data from China by esteemed virologist Dr Richard Yunlong Cao also suggest that the BA.2.86 has a very strong binding affinity with the ACE2 receptor which implies that is also more infectious and transmissible, hence contradicting earlier stupid claims by so called experts.
https://twitter.com/yunlong_cao/status/1700676053457658140
A preprint by leading Japanese virologists, Professor Kei Sato and a research commentary by him has also indicated that the BA.2.86 is as transmissible as the current EG.5.1 variant if not more!
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.09.07.556636v1
https://naokoiwanaga.theletter.jp/posts/fa689430-4df5-11ee-a74c-ab7fc073140e
Professor Kei Sato from University of Tokyo told
BA.2.86 News outlets, “The effective reproduction number (The number of secondary infections per person) is about 1.2 times more than that of XBB.1.5 and there is a very high possibility that it is equivalent or higher than the EG.5.1 strain which is currently predominant around the world!”
Professor Sato also commented that they were the first to provide data on the transmissibility aspects of the BA.2.86 variant.
The Japanese study also validated that the BA.2.86 is the most immune evasive SARS-CoV-2 variant so far.
Professor Kei Sato told media, "Neutralizing antibodies induced by any vaccine, including 3 and 4 doses of monovalent vaccine, bivalent vaccination of BA.1, and bivalent vaccination of BA.5, have almost no effect on BA.2.86."
The Japanese study also found that three monoclonal antibodies (Bebtelovimab, Sotrovimab and Tixagevimab), which worked against the parental BA.2, did not exhibit antiviral effects against BA.2.86.
It is interesting as recent study conducted by Moderna itself made claims that the new vaccines with the spike proteins of the XBB.1.5 variant were effective against the BA.2.86 variant.
https://investors.modernatx.com/news/news-details/2023/Moderna-Clinical-Trial-Data-Confirm-Its-Updated-Covid-19-Vaccine-Generates-Strong-Immune-Response-in-Humans-Against-BA.2.86/default.aspx
Off course we already know that vaccine manufacturers like Pfizer and Modera have a track record of lying and deceit and what ever they claim can be disregarded.
Sadly, however, many other Western labs and researchers are also making claims that the new COVID-19 monovalent vaccine booster with the XBB.1.5 spike protein will be effective against the BA.2.86 variant simply based on in vitro studies involving serum from individuals previously infected with the XBB.1.5 variant!
We also have many paid zealots on the X platform highly recommending the new COVID-19 monovalent vaccine booster with the spike proteins of the XBB.1.5 variant…many linked to the WHN and NECSI including the Asian-American epidemiologists and the American editor or a medical news site.
We have not even covered on the spawns of the BA.2.86 including BA.2.86.1 and two others that have to be designated any names yet. The BA.2.86 is still evolving rapidly and rest assured we will have many more worrisome spawns arising from it that will play dominant role in the winter of 2023/2024!
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/ba-2-86-news-total-of-36-ba-2-86-sequences-now-found-in-the-united-kingdom-ba-2-86-spawns-new-sub-lineage-ba-2-86-1-with-orf1a-k1973r-mutation
We urge readers to be wary of any studies, reports or media coverages originating from the Western world as sadly many of the people behind these are simply bought by those controlling the COVID-19 narratives and those behind the vaccine agenda.
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BA.2.86 News, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.