Vaccine Escape Mutants

Mutant varieties of the Covid-1984 virus seem to be emerging with great speed. Today, Tuesday 22nd December 2020, the BBC carried this headline:

Covid-19 pandemic: 

International alarm grows over new variant

In a BBC article the day before, the headline was:

New coronavirus variant: What do we know?

This second article concludes with the following:

Will the vaccines work against the new variant?

Almost certainly yes, or at least for now. All three leading vaccines develop an immune response against the existing spike, which is why the question comes up. Vaccines train the immune system to attack several different parts of the virus, so even though part of the spike has mutated, the vaccines should still work. "But if we let it add more mutations, then you start worrying," said Prof Gupta. "This virus is potentially on a pathway for vaccine escape, it has taken the first couple of steps towards that." Vaccine escape happens when the virus changes so it dodges the full effect of the vaccine and continues to infect people. This may be the most concerning element of what is happening with the virus. This variant is just the latest to show the virus is continuing to adapt as it infects more and more of us. A presentation by Prof David Robertson, from the University of Glasgow on Friday, concluded: "The virus will probably be able to generate vaccine escape mutants." That would put us in a position similar to flu, where the vaccines need to be regularly updated. Fortunately the vaccines we have are very easy to tweak.

"Almost certainly yes, or at least for now". Clearly, in the future the Covid vaccine will be recommended or mandated on at least a yearly basis in order to keep these "vaccine escape mutants" under control. The BBC is ramping up the fear factor and the UK government is busy locking down the country. The photo of Boris reinforces the belief that the country, along with most the world, has gone bonkers.

The phrase "vaccine escape mutants" reminds me of "teenage mutant ninja turtles" and there's no doubt that the MSM will be dramatising the former relentlessly as we transition to 2021. The vaccine will be trumpeted as humanity's only choice if it is to avoid extinction. It will be interesting to see in the coming year how far governments and employers are willing to impose Covid vaccination as a condition for travel and employment. Those who resist any such impositions will be effectively confined to their homes. If a Universal Basic Income is rolled out then proof of vaccination might be a requirement for accessing it. 

From a CBCNews Report of December 21st 2020, we learn that in the United States:

With the first doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine now being administered in the U.S., the federal government is giving employers around the country the green light to require immunisation for most workers. In general, companies have the legal right to mandate that employees get a COVID-19 shot, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) said Wednesday. More specifically, employers are entitled — and required — to ensure a safe workplace in which "an individual shall not pose a direct threat to the health or safety of individuals in the workplace." That can mean a company requiring its workforce to be vaccinated.

The second BBC article features a large artist's impression of the virus and nothing is every mentioned about the fact that the virus has never been isolated. However, the relentless display of an imaginary depiction of the virus reinforces the notion that it is real and dangerous and possibly heading straight for you. Figure 1 shows part of the BBC image.

Figure 1: the new face of terror

Summing things up nicely is this excellent article from the OffGuardian of December 7th 2020 that begins:

2020 was GloboCap Year Zero. The year when the global capitalist ruling classes did away with the illusion of democracy and reminded everyone who is actually in charge, and exactly what happens when anyone challenges them.

In the relatively short span of the last ten months, societies throughout the world have been transformed beyond recognition. Constitutional rights have been suspended. Protest has been banned. Dissent is being censored. Government officials are issuing edicts restricting the most basic aspects of our lives … where we can go, when we can go there, how long we are allowed to spend there, how many friends we are allowed to meet there, whether and when we can spend time with our families, what we are allowed to say to each other, who we can have sex with, where we have to stand, how we are allowed to eat and drink, etc. The list goes on and on.

The authorities have assumed control of the most intimate aspects of our daily lives. We are being managed like inmates in a prison, told when to eat, sleep, exercise, granted privileges for good behaviour, punished for the slightest infractions of an ever-changing set of arbitrary rules, forced to wear identical, demeaning uniforms (albeit only on our faces), and otherwise relentlessly bullied, abused, and humiliated to keep us compliant.

None of which is accidental, or has anything to do with any actual virus, or any other type of public health threat. Yes, before some of you go ballistic, I do believe there is an actual virus, which a number of people have actually died from, or which at least has contributed to their deaths … but there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever of any authentic public health threat that remotely justifies the totalitarian emergency measures we are being subjected to or the damage that is being done to society. Whatever you believe about the so-called “pandemic,” it really is as simple as that. Even if one accepts the official “science,” you do not transform the entire planet into a pathologised-totalitarian nightmare in response to a health threat of this nature.