Don’t count on monoclonal antibody drugs to save you—German researchers have found that #COVID19 synthetic antibody therapies developed by Eli Lilly and Regeneron lose most of their effectiveness when exposed in laboratory tests to the #Omicron variant. reuters.com/business/healt…
2) While many drugs work, I don’t think they will end the pandemic. Stopping transmission and opportunities for mutation will be what saves us in the end. Not just milder cases with expensive pharma treatment.
5) Let this sink in — if convalescent blood from #COVID19 survivors can’t even neutralize #Omicron well, then do you really think monoclonal antibodies will be the magic cure? Don’t rely on MABs — vaccinate and get boosted and wear masks and ventilate.
The #Omicron variant is surging in the US exponentially… CDC data shows that New York / New Jersey region is now over 10% Omicron of all #COVID19 cases. The rest of US is not far behind—likely dominant by Christmas 🎄 — please be careful during holidays.
💡New VACCINE RANKING of ability to neutralize #Omicron—Moderna appears to be the strongest against Omicron in this study, but still big drop. Pfizer next best (but we know infection efficacy is 30-34%), AstraZeneca & Sinopharm poor. J&J & Sputnik = zero.🧵biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
2) Natural infection immunity is on the left … “convalescent” = practically no neutralization against #Omicron in this study by itself without vaccine.
3) Meanwhile for SinoVac —one of the world’s most widely used vaccines, doesn’t provide sufficient antibodies to neutralize the #omicron variant, said 🇭🇰 researchers. But a 3rd shot booster seemed up help. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
HIGHEST kids COVID hospitalization ever in England 🏴 of the whole pandemic… ➡️ But but but… I thought some politicians & economist had once said “kids are practically immune” to #COVID19. 🤦🏻♂️
3) a 3 million person Danish study shows more kids in a household, more transmission. This is why we need to vaccinate to both protect kids and protect others in the household.
2) Exponential surge in cases is what will kill more people in the end. And while boosters work against #Omicron, the rollout of boosters wont be able to keep up with the exponential rise. We need to do more ASAP. See thread 🧵 below.
3) Anyone who touts “Omicron is milder” (not proven) also doesn’t understand epidemiology and exponential math. Even if it is 1/10th deadlier, but just merely 2x more contagious (we think #Omicron is 4-6x more), more people will die even with the 1/10th milder virus. See 🧵below