Most recently, a variant that seems to evade immune protection from vaccines is identified as a sixth variant.

What has been reported: “More than 100,000 Americans are reporting new infections every day.  The BA.5 subvariant of Omicron is responsible for about two-thirds of them.  Because most home test results go unreported, the true number of infections could be many times higher.  Worse, BA.5 appears to be three times less vulnerable to antibodies built up by existing vaccines than the initial Omicron strain was.” 

Translated by scientific reports:  “That means a previous COVID infection offers little protection against it, and some unlucky patients can succumb to BA.5 more than once.”

Findings from reports about hospital admissions: “Although far from last winter’s levels, the numbers have doubled since May to about 5,100 a day, and most of the country is affected, with more than 70 percent of counties experiencing medium or high COVID transmission.  Still vaccination and prior infection do appear to protect against serious illness and death from B.A. 5, as deaths are just 1.5 percent of January’s peak.”

Encouraging is the very recent news report how the Biden administration is “developing a plan to offer universal access to fourth shots, currently available only to the immuno-compromised and people over 50.”

Preliminary data did suggest how a second booster “provides 80 percent protection against hospitalization, but less than a third of those eligible have received one.”  

An encouraging note: “The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) is now asking vaccine makers to develop new boosters specifically tailored toward the subvariants.”

More reports on B.A. 5: “It has nasty spike protein that sneaks past immune defenses.  Boosters still provide ‘an important layer of enhanced protection,’ and using high-quality masks can significantly mitigate your risk.  But too few of us are protecting ourselves.  B.A. 5 could well infect millions of Americans — according to some leading virologists – “Nearly 50 million’ — putting some risk of disabling long COVID symptoms.”

Definitely, there is still so much to learn about how to prevent COVID.  Should lawmakers provide the funding scientists need, there should be less concern about the enormity of the issues that COVID has generated.  

Reportedly, Congress has “spent months denying a White House request” for new money to go toward research and vaccines.”  Therefore, should there be more funding, it would minimize worries coming from Administration officials that there won’t be enough boosters for people who want them during the expected fall surge.  It is feared that the latter period “could infect as many as 100 million Americans.”

What is direly needed in the approaching time frame: To vanquish the feared variant, a “full government support response” should be ushered in immediately. Some scientists call the highly-sought support as “a new Operation Warp Speed.”