Geoff: Covid cases are spiking
in many parts of the country.
Hospital admissions have doubled
since may, according to the CDC.
This latest covid surge is being
driven by two new omicron
subvariants.
The CDC estimates that together,
the ba.4 and ba.5 subvariants
represent more than 80 percent
of U.S. Cases.
And, vaccination or prior
infection does not guarantee
protection from these variants.
Joining us to discuss this and
what role vaccines play in this
latest surge, is Dr. Peter
hotez, Dean of the national
school of tropical medicine at
Baylor college of medicine in
Houston.
In the time since we've had a
covid vaccine I think the only
silver lining to catching covid
is you would not catch it again
but that seems to no longer be
the case especially with this
latest subvariant.
What accounts for that?
Dr. Hotez: What is happening is
if you had an omicron infection
in the past, and a lot of
Americans have, because during
that big spike in January, there
were roughly one million new
cases per day according to some
estimates, that is not
conferring protection against
the ba.5 reinfection.
The other name for omicron is
ba.1 and it is not conferring
protection for ba.5, and less
you have been vaccinated and
boosted, preferably twice.
That's what is needed to combat
ba.5, to max out vaccinations.
That seems to be keeping people
from the hospital even if it
doesn't keep you from getting
the infection and keeping you at
home for a few days.
Geoff: The current vaccines
available now, are they targeted
against the omicron variant and
subvariants?
Dr. Hotez: Not specifically.
All of the current vaccines,
both in the United States and
globally, including our vaccine
used in India, are developed
against the lineage that emerged
out of central China.
But if you have high enough
levels of virus neutralizing
antibody induced by the vaccine
against the original lineage,
there seems to be significant
spillover to ba.5, enough to
keep you from getting very sick.
Centers for disease control put
out some information in may
among the visuals over the age
of 50 in there is a clear
difference between those on and
those vaccinated, but there is
even a clear difference to those
who are vaccinated but not
boosted and those who are
boosted.
And those boosted twice have a
mortality rate pretty close to
zero, so that is potentially the
good news.
What it means is you have to be
mindful of your vaccination
status.
If you've only gotten two doses
of the vaccine, you are still
pretty vulnerable and you need
to get that used -- that boost.
If you've been boosted once and
you're eligible for a second
boost, get the second boost,
that will lock-in you won't get
very sick from this virus.
Geoff: Generally speaking, how
do we stop playing catch up.
First it was the delta variant
than the omicron variant and now
it is the omicron subvariant.
Will we ever get to the point
where we are not in this
situation?
Dr. Hotez: We can but a couple
of things have to happen.
First of all, we need to do a
better job of vaccinating
globally because all of these
new variants like delta, ba.5,
are rising out of low income
countries were vaccination rates
have been low.
Mother nature is telling us
until we vaccinate the entire
world, she will continue hurling
variants of concern at us.
Problem number two is there is a
lot of handwringing about the
next boost, because the boosts
are not necessarily lasting as
long as we hoped with mrna.
Do we try to develop a ba.5
specific boost?
The problem is by the time it is
ready in the fall, ba.5 they be
in the rearview mirror.
There's a lot of interest,
including our group of
developing a universal
coronavirus vaccine to handle
this and other future variants
and potentially other future
coronavirus's, because member
covid-19 is our third major
coronavirus of global major
concern.
What we really need to figure
out is how we proceed between
now and say the next year or two
when that universal coronavirus
vaccine becomes available.
It's not clear to me that the
ba.5 boost will be the example
simply because when it is ready
in the fall, it will be behind
us.
We need to look at boosting with
different technologies.
We need an overarching strategy
for the next few months.
Geoff: One question I have for
you, when we talk about
reinfection's.
Are there long-term consequences
for people who get covid-19
multiple times?
Dr. Hotez: I think what you're
probably eating at is what is
the situation with long covid
and neurological deterioration.
Is there a greater propensity of
people who have it once versus
people who are getting
reinfected and I think the
answer is we don't know that
yet.
There is a lot of interest in
trying to understand the
circumstances that make you more
vulnerable to long covid.
Among them, it turns out women
seem to have a higher rate of
long covid and underlying
diabetes is a risk factor.
Were trying to figure out how to
mitigate against the effects of
long covid.
Likely one of them will be
turning out to be vaccinated and
well boosted because severe
illness seems to make you more
susceptible to long covid.
By reducing the severity of
illness, vaccination boosting
may have added benefit.
Geoff: The white house covid
coordinator this past week said
even in the face of ba.5
subvariant, that the tools we
have continue to work.
Basically he is saying we
shouldn't let this subvariant
struct our lives.
Is that a fair assessment?
Dr. Hotez: It is partly right.
He is right, we have the tools.
The problem is as a nation, we
are failing to convince the
American people to use those
tools.
For instance, only about 30% of
the U.S. Population has taken a
single booster.
That means 70% of the population
is still highly susceptible to
this ba.5 variant and
hospitalization.
The number of Americans taking
their second booster is likely
far lower than that.
I took my second booster and my
colleagues in the medical and
science professions have but we
are doing a terrible job
convincing the American people
of the need for the second
booster.
So yes, we have a lot of tools
in hand but now the next up is
convincing people to use them.
And by the way, we are doing
even worse vaccinating our kids,
only about 30% of the eligible
five to 11-year-olds are
vaccinated and we had terrible
news about the very slow uptake
in under five.
There's a lot of work to do.
Geoff: Thank you as always.
Dr. Hotez: Thank you.