Covid is Over (for the Immunized)

We’re done. Based on early laboratory studies and recent clinical data, it seems that we can declare Covid [air quotes] “officially over” for? the vaccinated and boosted or those who have survived Omicron through natural immunities. All this despite?the large portion of the population remaining unvaccinated. Omicron is so infectious it is unlikely an even more infectious strain will outperform it. A more deadly virulent strain might emerge, but Omicron should prohibit that strain from gaining a foothold in the general population. In Darwinian evolution, infectiousness trumps virulence. Indeed, it might be that Omicron is both more transmissible and less lethal because it has mutated to perch in our throats rather than in our lungs, allowing us to? breathe easier but also to cough it out more opportunistically to others.?

More significantly, J&J, Pfizer and Moderna appear to eliminate hospitalization for all but the most vulnerable among us. The vulnerable (elderly, immune-compromised, unvaccinated, and their caretakers) still need to behave like a Unabomber for now, but with Omicron’s accelerating transmission pace, even they could get back onto the dance floor, if —?a big if — Covid eventually fades away.?

For example, NBC reported that the roughly 50 Covid patients admitted to Houston’s United Memorial Medical Center in the last four weeks were all unvaccinated. Yes, we should continue to mask-up to reduce caseloads and protect the vulnerable, but if you're boosted you can otherwise return to pre-Covid activities because Omicron appears to present as a cold or mild flu.?

With so many more people now getting Omicron how can this be? Here’s how: We have two distinct sets of white blood cell immune systems with overlapping communication between them. They do play defense, but mostly they play offense. Our innate immunity is triggered at the very moment a pathogen is discovered, and is constantly battling millions of individual pathogens throughout our body all the time. Our second line of attack is our adaptive immunity which gears up, tailoring itself to fight a specific pathogen when our innate immunity is overwhelmed. Vaccines are designed to train the succeeding adaptive immunity, but do nothing for our initial innate immunity.?

The big question has always been, not “will I get sick?” but “how sick will I get?” Brand new research from the?Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine at the University of Cape Town [cite] shows that for vaccinated and boosted people, it's not very sick with Omicron. And a consortium of Japanese and American scientists just released a report [cite] demonstrating that those infected with Omicron had less lung damage than with previous strains. That’s great news. It appears that while our first line of defense—our innate immunity—is out-gunned by Omicron, if vaccinated, our adaptive immunity, which initially stands by and stands down, is well-prepared to clobber Omicron. Therefore, many will likely ‘get’ the Omicron virus because their innate immune system is ineffective, but if boosted, won’t become especially ill because their adaptive immunity is. Could you be one of the rare exceptions? Of course. But, lightning.?

Pathogens—which are called antigens because they trigger our immune system to make antibodies (antigens are anti-body generators)—can be a virion, bacterium, toxin or tiny worm. Antibodies are one of the molecules we assemble to communicate between our innate and adaptive immunities. Antibodies can also directly latch on to the pathogen early in the fight, making the pathogens unable to function. Unfortunately, unlike Alpha and Delta, Omicron has different spike molecules making it tough to thwart early on.

The white blood cells of our innate immune system (white blood cells are called leukocytes) harbor a host of defenses that attack pathogens even before our adaptive immune system is alerted to an infection. Neutrophils are the first responders and make up half of our white blood cells. They are short lived and kill using nasty toxins. Giant macrophage leukocyte cells secrete degradation enzymes, like hydrogen peroxide, to kill and swallow up pathogens. They also secrete a signalling hormone, called cytokines, that directs other leukocytes to the danger zone. Interferon was one of the first cytokines we discovered. Dendritic white blood cells have the function of recognizing dangerous antigen pathogens and creating the antibodies that can stop pathogens in their tracks. But they also carry their antibody molecules to the adaptive immune cells to teach them exactly what to go after. Yet for most of us, our innate labyrinth is foiled by Omicron. But if vaccinated, not our adaptive immunity!??

While all this is going on with our innate immune system, our adaptive immunity lymphocytes—the good guys with a gun—are readying themselves to attack the enemy. The adaptive immunity includes B-cell receptors (immunoglobulins), CD-4 “helper” T-cells, and CD-8 “killer” T-cells. (CD-4 and CD-8 simply refer to a molecular “Cluster Designation”). Cleverly, later on, hold-your-fire suppressor CD-4 T-cells also can produce a cytokine that signals the troops to call off the attack when the fight is won.?

One of the miraculous inventions of our adaptive lymphocytes is that years before we are even infected we’ve already manufactured the exact right B-cells and T-cells to launch an attack targeting any and every specific pathogen that might come our way. In fact, our bodies have the targeted leukocyte ready and waiting before we leave our mother’s womb. How could our immune system possibly anticipate a yet unknown infecting pathogen, including Omicron which didn’t exist—if you’re reading this—even before you were born? The answer is in the random selection of DNA molecules.?

Two independent sets of nucleotides—the building block molecules of DNA that form genes—are spread out across chromosomes, like two decks of cards. The molecules that will form each new leukocyte randomly pick some nucleotides from the first set of cards and then some nucleotides from the second set. The resulting leukocyte cell proteins that can go after a specific pathogen is a multiplication of possibilities; billions of possibilities. We retain these B-cells and T-cells that can recognize almost anything thrown at them throughout our life. Shrewdly, the fetus initially accepts itself and everything else within the womb as ‘good’ and therefore rejects the B-cells and T-cells that would otherwise attack it. But at some point, the yet unborn baby determines that any new organism is alien and allows for the creation of B-cells and T-cells that would ambush all subversives, foreign and domestic.?

You, my friend, are not an individual ‘you’. Rather you are a colony of trillions of individual eukaryotic organisms, living in harmony, each with their own mother cell and ambition to see their genes live long and prosper. That includes your white blood cells in position and ready to fight Omicron. But while we retain the right lymphocyte cell necessary to kill Omicron at birth, the cells are literally few and far between. Their numbers are too small against the exponentially growing onslaught of a virus.?

The vaccine activates our adaptive immunity to clone the distinctly-Covid-fighting B-cells and T-cells that we're born with. The B‐lymphocytes generate antigen-specific antibodies against Covid. The T-cells have their own special kind of antibody (T-cell antigen receptors) on their cell wall membrane that can bind to the pathogen and go in for the kill. The virus fiendishly fools our cells into opening its doorway which allows the virus to use the Ribosome proteins in our cells to replicate its own RNA instead of the RNA that our cells transcribe from our DNA. Vaccines give us a fake infection so we have more immunological memory and antibodies for our adaptive immune system to beat back infection faster, or even before we get sick. Get boosted. Wear a mask. Enjoy your life.?