Covid infections are up by 68%, over the past two weeks, in my county

[BumRushDaShow]

39. The vaccine makers have been working on ones that would try to deal with Omicron

But they still have to go through the motions of clinical trials and time spent gathering data, etc., before being able to request an EUA (or possibly an amendment to the BLA) for the new version.

During their initial data releases, Pfizer found there was not much difference in response with their "targeted" booster vs just another boost from their original vaccine.

One of the things these SARS viruses can do with mutations is change the configurations of proteins along the spikes that can effectively "hide" portions that our antibodies would normally attach to, making it harder to grab them and clear them from the body.

Meanwhile Moderna recently announced a reformulated vaccine that includes targeting critical sites on multiple previous variants - notably the Beta one (that didn't really take hold here in the U.S.) and in doing so, they managed to have that one produce a good response against both Delta and Omicron too. So that is some good news (I am a Moderna recipient for the 2 initial doses and a booster).

I think at this point, they are also focused on getting the data on boosting the 5 - 11 group and at some point, getting the infants/toddlers vaccine data for approval of initial doses because those age groups really got hit hard with Omicron much much worse than any previous variant.

And regarding new strains, as I have read, the original Influenza strain from 1918 is actually still circulating, but since it has been a century since that hit and so many Influenza strains are out there now that would dwarf whatever little is around of the 1918 one, that it wouldn't make much difference.