Lovely

It looks like the current Covid variants tearing through the world. BA.2.86 and JN1 are particularly nasty.

All those Pollyanna who thought  that the virus would get less virulent over time seem to have been deeply wrong.

This is particularly concerning because so many of our public health professionals were among those followers of Professor Pangloss:

Highly mutated COVID variant BA.2.86—close ancestor of globally dominant “Pirola” JN.1—may lead to more severe disease than other Omicron variants, according to two new studies published Monday in the journal Cell.

In one study, researchers from Ohio State University performed a variety of experiments using a BA.2.86 pseudovirus—a lab-created version that isn’t infectious. They found that BA.2.86 can fuse to human cells more efficiently and infect cells that line the lower lung—traits that may make it more similar to initial, pre-Omicron strains that were more deadly.

In the other study, researchers in Germany and France came to the same conclusion. “BA.2.86 has regained a trait characteristic of early SARS-CoV-2 lineages: robust lung cell entry,” the authors wrote. The variant “might constitute an elevated health threat as compared to previous Omicron sublineages,” they added.

While illness caused by the initial Omicron strain was typically considered more mild than that caused by earlier variants, it’s impossible to say definitively, experts say. That’s because those sickened by Omicron had generally already been infected with an earlier version of the virus, likely softening the blow. Additionally, many had been vaccinated, to the same effect.

Still, Omicron had a penchant for infecting the upper airway versus the lower airway, where prior versions of the virus tended to accumulate, causing more severe disease. The new studies offer proof that this trend may very well be reversing, the authors contend. If true, it’s bad news for those who hoped the virus was slowly attenuating to the equivalent of a common cold.

I hate wearing a fucking mask, but I wear my fucking mask.

Wear your fucking mask.