Second study in a month to find “class switch” to so-called IgG4 antibodies, known for their mild immune response, in mRNA recipients alone. Future of Johnson & Johnson’s traditional vaccine unclear as demand craters.
Less than a month after the CDC marked the two-year anniversary of the first administered COVID-19 vaccine by telling Americans to get a bivalent booster, two peer-reviewed German studies have found that mRNA vaccines — the vast majority of the U.S. market — induce worse antibodies compared to traditional adenovirus vaccines.
The first paper, published in Science Immunology Dec. 22, focused on mRNA boosters, while the second, published in Frontiers in Immunology Jan. 12, found the same association with the two-dose primary series.
The Frontiers paper has the added distinction of a Pfizer scientist serving as its editor and one of Anthony Fauci’s staffers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases as a peer reviewer, suggesting the mRNA vaccine maker and feds were aware of a potential antibody problem around the time Omicron-targeting boosters were authorized.
The findings call into question the government’s promotion of bivalent boosting even while regulators admit that newer COVID variants are evading vaccines.
New York City’s Department of Health told residents Friday the XBB.1.5 Omicron subvariant now comprises three-quarters of documented COVID infections in the city.
It is “the most transmissible form of COVID-19 that we know of to date and may be more likely to infect people who have been vaccinated or already had COVID-19,” the department tweeted. It didn’t answer Just the News queries about the evidence for its claims about vaccination or prior infection.
The CDC said XBB.1.5 accounted for 43% of documented infections nationwide last week, with under 3% from BA.5, which is part of the bivalent cocktail. University of Tokyo virologists shared research Sunday that found XBB.1.5 exhibits “profound immune resistance” and “augmented ACE2 binding affinity,” and hence “increased transmissibility,” due to specific mutations.