A group of scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston, Texas reports the mutating Omicron subvariants such as BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1., and XBB.1 feature additional spike mutations, further inhibiting COVID-19 vaccine booster effectiveness. Led by Pei-Yong Shi, PhD, UTMB’s Vice President for Research, co-corresponding authors Ping Re, PhD, an epidemiologist, and Xuping Xie, PhD, an assistant a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, the UTMB investigators report concerning neutralizing activities of three human serum panels collected from subjects 23-94 days after the fourth dose of a parental mRNA vaccine, 14-32 days after a BA.5 bivalent booster from persons with 2-4 previous doses of parental mRNA vaccine, or 15-32 days after a BA.5 bivalent booster from persons who were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 and 204 doses of parental mRNA vaccine. By day 14 to 32, the Omicron bivalent BA.4/BA.5 triggered high neutralizing titers against BA.4/BA.5, but unfortunately, this particular vaccine now aggressively promoted by the U.S. government doesn’t generate robust neutralization against the newly emerged BA.2.75.2, BQ.1.1, or XBB.1. Unfortunately, BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 represent the fastest growing Omicron subvariants across America.
Also pointing out that persons that were previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 benefited from “significantly enhanced” levels of BA.5-bivalent-booster-elicited neutralization, the data clearly points to the need for continuous booster vaccines that “should match newly emerged circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants.”
The study conducted by the scientists at UTMB were able to collect and analyze blood from 29 subjects with no COVID-19 infection but received the Omicron jab as well as another 23 samples from persons who receive the booster who didn’t have a history of infection, and finally, samples from 25 persons with four doses of the vaccine designed for the Wuhan variant. Vaccination samples fell into one of two categories by collection days after the vaccination event: 14 to 32 days post the Omicron booster and 23 to 94 days after the fourth dose of the first vaccine targeting the Wuhan variant.
Background Context
Although a major benefit attributed to the novel mRNA vaccine platforms was the ability to frequently update the vaccines while maintaining safety and effectiveness, most vaccinated with mRNA vaccines were immunized with products targeting the original Wuhan variant. It wasn’t until September 2022, 21 months after the release of the first mRNA vaccines, that an updated variant-specific booster dose was released, early before any available clinical trials data. This early release authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and then blessed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) led to heightened concern and a corresponding concern.
These concerns manifest in the low uptake of the Omicron bivalent booster vaccine, still estimated at under 20% of all eligible cohorts, despite an aggressive ongoing push by the federal government for mass acceptance. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been committed by the federal government to put as many vaccine spikes in arms as possible known as the “six-week sprint.”
While during the White House press conference in late November Dr. Ashish Jha again reminded Americans that God gave them two arms, one for the flu shot and one for COVID shots, the outgoing Dr. Anthony Fauci used “early release” limited data from the CDC to declare these boosters were working. While some positive data has surfaced, the limited nature of the CDC’s study would hinder any definitive claims, thus Fauci, not surprisingly, inappropriately made claims without qualifying the limits of the study and associated data.
Additionally, while both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna tailored their Omicron bivalent booster vaccines to the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, by the time the vaccine was released at the start of September BA.5 was already becoming less predominant with the emergence of new Omicron subvariants such as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1.
By November 15, 2022, Dr. Peter McCullough a prominent cardiologist-investigator and member of TrialSite advisory committee reported that already, just a few weeks ago, “…As depicted by the CDC Nowcast system, BA4/BA5 are on their way out giving way to BQ.1 and BQ.1.1.”
With BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. cases on the rise (and BA.5 cases decline), the timing as McCullough alludes to isn’t great for the Omicron bivalent booster vaccine because the pathogen the product was designed to target isn’t as relevant.
Challenges
Unfortunately, Pei-Yong Shi, PhD, and team at UTMB reveal that the booster jab doesn’t trigger a significantly robust antibody response against BQ.1.1, for example—the very variant on track to predominate. Ironically, those individuals that were infected and received the booster dose fared better against BQ.1.1 than those who did not.
Another Omicron subvariant known as XBB.1 further evades the booster’s neutralizing antibodies. The UTMB study found in the lab setting that those persons with previous infection exposure and the booster have three times as many antibodies against this subvariant versus persons that never were infected.