COVID Christmas Miracle: New Universal Vaccine is Variant-Proof!

It’s a COVID Christmas miracle! We’re looking at not one, but two massive medical breakthroughs that are going to change the course of the pandemic. the first is that the US Army has developed a universal COVID vaccine that claims to be variant-proof, and the second is that the FDA just approved an antiviral COVID pill that people can take at home and cuts hospitalizations and deaths by almost 90%.

This is SUCH GOOD NEWS! So let’s talk about both of these breakthroughs and what makes them truly amazing, but also what you actually need to know about them before calling an end to the pandemic, ripping off your mask, and kissing a coughing stranger. Because the reality today, is that we’re experiencing by far the biggest wave of cases we’ve seen in the last two years.

The Omicron variant is on an entirely different level than the original COVID-19 virus or the Delta variant. Despite 80% of Americans having at least one vaccination, the Omicron virus is spreading as fast as measles does among an unvaccinated population, and Omicron has a shorter incubation time, and a much faster doubling time.

It took just three weeks for the new variant to become the dominant strain in the United States, and it multiplies 70 times faster than the Delta variant! We literally haven’t seen anything like this before, it’s like playing Plague Inc with unlimited DNA points and spending all of them on Transmission.

But thankfully, the hospitalization rate for Omicron has been relatively low compared to previous variants, because if it were as deadly as Delta, we would be looking at something like 30,000 deaths around the world per day! And the truly scary thing is knowing that it’s totally possible for a variant to emerge that combines the worst qualities of Omicron and Delta.

And THAT’s why the new universal vaccine being developed by the US Army, called the Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle COVID-19 vaccine, or SpFN for short, is astonishingly good news. Here’s what we know about it: This week, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is announcing that their new vaccine is not only effective against all COVID-19 variants, but also prevents other SARS-origin variants from previous disease outbreaks.

It’s a massive development, and this month, they finished Phase One human trials, which included testing against Omicron and other variants, with reportedly positive results. Those results are currently undergoing review before moving onto the final testing stages that would allow it to be widely distributed. And the unique way that the vaccine works is what makes it so much more effective than prior vaccines. The Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle COVID-19 vaccine is, fittingly, like a Swiss Army Knife - it’s shaped like a soccer ball with 24 different faces, and a different coronavirus strains on each one, that can account for all the different types of spike proteins found on mutated variants - it even works against the Omicron variant which has 30 new mutations on its spike protein alone.

Seriously, this is huge news - but let’s be very realistic about what to expect: the SpFN vaccine is still in testing, and it’s not clear what side effects it causes, or who will be eligible to receive it based on further clinical trials, or how easy it will be to roll out the new vaccine quickly and globally. We’re already struggling to get the existing vaccines to many parts of the world, and even people with easy access to vaccines aren’t taking them. So in the meantime, we do need something else to bridge the gap of new hospitalizations and rising death rates.

And we have it, in the second colossal medical breakthrough that we’re SO excited about: the new, FDA approved, at-home COVID-19 pill. This pill is a game changer: Pfizer’s antiviral pill, Paxlovid can treat COVID-19 before its symptoms put you in the hospital, and treating COVID early is the single best thing you can do to survive it. When given to high-risk adults within the first few days of their symptoms, the pill cut the risk of hospitalization or death by nearly 90%.

That’s insane. Literally, this is the best news that we’ve gotten about COVID-19 since the vaccine was developed, and arguably this is better. Even with the vaccine, high-risk and immunocompromised patients have been at constant threat, and this treatment is finally a way out - a 90% reduction in hospitalization and death could effectively cut COVID-19’s mortality rate to be par with everyday diseases. And almost anyone can take it - right now it’s being allocated to high-risk patients who are 12 years or older and weigh at least 88 pounds.

The Biden administration has already announced that it will be buying 10 million treatment courses for $5.3 billion dollars, which is 300 million pills - that’s $17 bucks a pill, it’s not even expensive. This, coupled with the new vaccine breakthrough, is expected to be a game changer in the fight against COVID, and is seriously the best news that we’ve reported on in the last two years.

The pandemic is far from over, but nonetheless, this holiday season in addition to masking up, getting vaxxed, and getting boosted, you can also finally let yourself breath a little sigh of optimistic relief. Merry Christmas everybody, stay safe.