Here is Dr. Klotman’s Week 137 COVID Update. The highlights from this update are:
- The emerging strains of the virus are BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 from the UK and XBB from Asia and South Asia
- The XBB is the most contagious SARS-CoV-2 variant yet
- All of these new variants share a particular mutation that helps the virus evade the human immune response
Long COVID is an on-going concern. One in four symptomatic COVID cases persists for weeks beyond the acute infection. The mechanism that underlies long COVID appears to be auto-immunity to the ACE-II receptor that serves as the point of viral spike attachment to human cells. Vaccination significantly reduces the risk that a person infected with the virus will develop long COVID – still another reason to get vaccinated.
Viral evolution requires viral replication, and viral replication requires a population of susceptible (unvaccinated) individuals. So, as long as millions in the 3rd World remain under-vaccinated, the virus will continue to mutate. Perhaps those populations will develop mild disease (Africa has a younger population than Europe or the US) and hence develop natural immunity. We will see.
In an unrelated article from the Texas Medical Association, the GAO recently reported that CVOID infection was involved in 25% of maternal deaths. As with Influenza, COVID during pregnancy has a more severe, even fatal, coourse. Vaccination reduces the risk of severe COVID and maternal mortality.