Despite Many Previous Manipulated Studies, University of Cambridge Study Confirms That Delta Variant Is Immune Evasive To Both Sera And Vaccines!

The largest ever and detailed study led by researchers from the University of Cambridge along with scientists and experts from University College London-UK, National Centre for Disease Control-India, CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology-India ,Imperial College London-UK,Sri Ganga Ram Hospital-India, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital-India.  The Genotype to Phenotype Japan (G2P-Japan) Consortium-Japan, The CITIID-NIHR BioResource COVID-19 Collaboration-UK, Vir Biotechnology-Switzerland, Hiroshima University-Japan, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health-Japan and the University of Copenhagen-Denmark has confirmed that the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is immune evasive and that antibodies are less effective against the Delta variant.

 
The study findings were published in the peer reviewed journal: Nature in the last 36 hours. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03944-y
 
While the SARS-CoV-2 replicates, errors in its genetic makeup cause it to mutate. Some mutations make the virus more transmissible or more infectious; some help it evade the immune response, potentially making vaccines less effective, while others have little effect. One such variant, labeled the B.1.617.2 Delta variant, was first observed in India in late 2020. It has since spread around the globe in the UK, it is responsible nearly all new cases of coronavirus infection.
 
This new research combines findings from lab experiments and analysis of breakthrough cases to piece together signs of the Delta variant, or the B.1.617.2, being better at replication and resisting antibodies-these traits helped it rapidly overtake the Alpha (B.1.1.7) variant that was at the time the most transmissible version of the coronavirus.
 
Thailand Medical News would like to stress that individuals have to note that the situation is extremely dynamic as while one even reads this article, the Delta variant is continuing to evolve and become even more resistant to all forms of immune strategies by the host.
 
The study team says that the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, which has become the dominant variant in countries including India and the UK, has most likely spread through its ability to evade neutralizing antibodies and its increased infectivity.
 
Unlike the Delta variant, which was first found in India, the Alpha variant (first found in the UK) triggered only a 2.3-fold drop in potency of antibodies drawn from recovered COVID-19 patients.
 
However alarmingly, there was a six-fold drop in the ability of antibodies from a past infection to neutralize the Delta variant of the Sars-Cov-2, and a greater eight-fold reduction in the potency of antibodies elicited by vaccines according to the new study findings.
 
In other words, it takes eight times as many antibodies from a vaccinated individual to block the virus!
 
Professor Dr Ravi Gupta from the Cambridge Institute of Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Disease, who is one of the key authors, told Thailand Medical News, “By combining lab-based experiments and epidemiology of vaccine breakthrough infections, we’ve shown that the Delta variant is better at replicating and spreading than other commonly-observ ed variants. There’s also evidence that neutralizing antibodies produced as a result of previous infection or vaccination are less effective at stopping this variant. These factors are likely to have contributed to the devastating wave in India during the first quarter of 2021, where as many as half of the cases were individuals who had previously been infected with an earlier variant.”
 
The study also involved antibodies drawn from individuals who had a past infection, or received either the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine or the Pfizer-BioNTech shot. These were then made to neutralize the Alpha, Beta and Delta variants in a laboratory.
 
Interestingly this part of the analysis showed the most evasive variant was Beta (first found in South Africa), followed by Delta and Alpha.
 
The subsequent part of the study involved analysis of breakthrough infections among 112 healthcare workers in three Delhi hospitals, which showed that most were cases of Delta variant (99 infections), hence  confirming the mutated virus was more likely to cause disease in vaccinated individuals compared to other versions of the Sars-Cov-2 coronavirus.
 
The research also found a similar drop in the potency of lab-grown antibody therapy such as bamlanivimab and imdevimab.
 
Dr Anurag Agarwal, director, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, who is also part of the study added, “Infection in vaccinated healthcare workers with the Delta variant is a significant problem. Although they themselves may only experience mild Covid-19, they risk infecting individuals who have suboptimal immune responses to vaccination due to underlying health conditions, these patients could then be at risk of severe disease.”
 
The study team suggests due to this risk, infection control measures such as masking, social distancing, and hand washing must continue even in “post-vaccination era”.
 
The research also addresses why the Delta variant appears to be fitter than the others, despite showing a lower antibody resistance than the Beta variant. It cites lab analysis that shows the Delta variant to be more efficient in entering human cells and replicating within.
 
This is achieved via mutations that make its fusion with the host cell more efficient. Once within a cell, they are also able to replicate more widely as compared to the Alpha variant, according to experiments conducted in epithelial cells (the lining) of the airway and the lungs as well as 3D organoids (mini-organs grown from airway cells).
 
Utilizing 3D airway organoids or ‘mini-organs’ grown from cells from the airway, which mimic its behavior, the research team studied what happens when the virus reaches the respiratory tract. Working under secure conditions, the team used both a live virus and a ‘pseudotyped virus’ ie a synthetic form of the virus that mimicked key mutations on the Delta variant and used this to infect the organoids. The study team found that the Delta variant was more efficient at breaking into the cells compared with other variants as it carried a larger number of cleaved spikes on its surface. Once inside the cells, the variant was also better able to replicate. Both of these factors give the virus a selection advantage compared to other variants, helping explain why it has become so dominant.
 
Joint senior author, Dr Partha Rakshit from the National Centre for Disease Control-India said, “The Delta variant has spread widely to become the dominant variants worldwide because it is faster to spread and better at infecting individuals than most other variants we’ve seen. It is also better at getting around existing immunity either through previous exposure to the virus or to vaccination though the risk of moderate to severe disease is reduced in such cases.”
 
Thailand Medical News would like to further add that in the last 3 months there were at least a total of 42 manipulated studies conducted by ‘bought’ researchers and institutions claiming that antibody based therapeutics and vaccines were effective against the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variants. However despite attempts to suppress data, it is apparent with increasing number of breakthrough infections including many resulting in disease severity and even deaths that the current vaccines are failing. The Biden and Boris administrations have been trying hard along with support of the big pharma, American mainstream media and American social media platforms to paint a picture that the vaccines while do not stop the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, they at least prevent disease severity and lowers risk of mortality. (Which is no longer true!)
 
However most underestimated the rapid evolving Delta variant that is mutating fast to resists neutralization by antibodies. As of last count, there are at least more than a hundred and thirty Delta sub-variants that have emerged with unique mutations on them, so much so that experts are now having an ordeal trying to classify them! (Two weeks ago, we reported that there were more than 27 Delta sub-variants but so many have been identified since.) https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-four-delta-second-generation-variants-found-in-thailand-ie-ay-4,-ay-6,-ay-10-and-ay-12-more-than-27-delta-sub-variants-identified-globally
 
Those controlling the COVID-19 narratives then shifted the focus on to accusing the unvaccinated as being the cause of the spike in cases while moving away on the failure of the vaccines against the Delta variant and also not disclosing to the public as to how fast the Delta variant is constantly evolving to evade the antibodies elicited by the vaccines or antibody based therapeutics.
 
Another ploy was the recommendations of using booster shots from those already deemed fully vaccinated. Study data are being manipulated that show that these works in Israel while omitting out the breakthrough infections are still occurring after the booster shots.
 
This constant usage of a vaccine that is already having lower potency to neutralize the current Delta variant and its rapidly emerging ever-growing immune-evasive sub-variants is eventually going to backfire extremely badly as it is driving the Delta variant to mutate. (I have not even started on the Lambda and Mu variants yet in terms of vaccine evasiveness, will be covering those in separate articles.)
 
What is also worrying is that these constant mutations taking place as a result of exposure to the vaccines could somehow even amplify or make the ADE phenomena more apparent. (This is simply a hypothesis, there is no solid proof that this could even happen.) https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-french-study-published-in-journal-of-infections-claims-that-ade-or-antibody-dependent-enhancement-is-occurring-in-delta-variant-infections
 
The coming months will indeed be fun times as a lot of truths will finally have to come out as in the case of this study.
 
For more on the ever evolving Delta variant, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.