Volume 4

Happy Wednesday and Happy Pride Month!

In this week’s edition, I’ve included information on: COVID vaccines, the emerging BA4 and BA5 variants, a new Office of Environmental Justice at HHS, Monkeypox, worrisome healthcare economic trends, and deepening concerns about the healthcare workforce.

For deeper dives, click on the hyperlinks in summaries!

1. Vaccines are struggling to keep up with new variants.

The coronavirus is mutating at a rate faster than the development, production, and distribution of newer vaccines which often takes months (and even years). As more potent and immune-resistant variants and subvariants emerge, vaccines aren’t keeping up.

While mRNA vaccines have been extremely effective, other strategies may be needed to control new variants. For example, the new Omicron BA4 and BA5 variants closely trail BA2 and BA2.12.1 subvariants in their predominance by just a few months. As each variant or subvariant emerges, they more easily evade antibodies from prior infections or currently available vaccines. (BA4 and BA5 are demonstrating immune evasion and will likely be the dominant strains by the end of the summer.)

So What’s The Big Deal? We will continue to see breakthrough infections. COVID spreads extremely fast and mutates quickly. It isn’t going anywhere and will be with us for a long time. New vaccine and therapeutic strategies will be needed to control the disease.

So Now What? Get vaccinated and boosted. Despite breakthrough infections, vaccines still remain the best protective measure to reduce infection and the severity of illness.

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