Pandemics don’t go away because people get bored with them. And COVID-19 has shown an unusual ability to adapt to our defenses against it. It is certainly not “just the flu” as some slackers and anti-vaxxers foolishly claim.

Researchers have discovered that the Omicron BA.2 subvariant can produce brain inflammation.

New research on the Omicron subvariant of the coronavirus has suggested the pathogen could be changing how it attacks the human body - shifting from infecting respiratory systems to increasingly targeting the brain. Researchers from Australia and France found BA.5 - the coronavirus subvariant driving what is now the world's biggest surge of infections in China - did much more severe damage to mouse brains and cultured human brain tissues than the previous BA.1 subvariant, leading to brain inflammation, weight loss and death. The findings challenge the common belief that viruses usually evolve to become less pathogenic. "Compared with BA. 1, we found that a BA.5 isolate displayed increased pathogenicity in K18-hACE2 mice with rapid weight loss, brain infection and encephalitis, and mortality. In addition, BA.5 productively infected human brain organoids significantly better than BA. 1," a manuscript of the research said.

The bivalent boosters from Pfizer and Moderna provide improved protection against BA.5.

New Covid boosters work better against infection than previous shots, CDC finds

The first real-world data on the new omicron vaccines find that they are better at preventing symptomatic Covid infections than the earlier doses, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

The findings fortify messaging from public health officials that the new shots, from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, should provide people with the best protection against Covid this winter, according to the CDC report.

Both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s new boosters target BA.4 and BA.5, along with the original coronavirus strain, in a single dose.

If you plan to attend a crowded New Year’s celebration, it’s a good idea to get the bivalent booster now.

Please get the new bivalent Covid booster and your flu shot when you can. The CDC says it's safe to get both at the same time. This link will help you find locations in the U.S. that are administering the bivalent booster, many of which are also offering flu shots.

BOOSTED ✅

The official COVID-19 pandemic emergency is now over – but that doesn’t mean the pandemic itself is over. Pandemics gradually fade rather than suddenly disappear. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is an example; there are still close to 40 million people living with HIV and the virus has been around since the late 1970s.

The New York Times reports that about a thousand people still die of COVID in the US every week. And with a large number of people still unvaccinated there is always the possibility of a new variant like Omicron.

It’s a good idea to keep up with new boosters when they become available. COVID boosters may become as routine as annual flu shots. Boosters are recommended if you plan to spend a lot of time in areas where Fox News has a large viewership. 

You can find locations in the US which offer the COVID-19 vaccines at this site...

(via Eric Topol on Twitter: "The @FDACommissioner takes on @DrPaulOffit via @NEJM correspondence on bivalent Covid vaccines