# COVID Escape Mutants ## Resources - [['Bret Weinstein's Covid Agenda']] - [[DarkHorse Podcast]] section ## "Escape Mutations May Drive New COVID Resurgence" https://www.webmd.com/lung/news/20210202/escape-mutations-may-drive-new-covid-resurgence [[WebMD]] article about the B.1.351 variant ### What it is E484K is called an escape mutation because it helps the virus escape this standing army. With this mutation, the virus can slip past our immune defenses and make us sick. **Escape mutations arise as pressure is put on the virus to survive. John Moore and others think pressure that allows mutations to develop comes from an incomplete immune response** -- something that might happen in a person who has a compromised immune system and struggles for months to shake a COVID infection. Another scenario that could drive escape mutations is **incomplete protection from a vaccine**, which could happen in the interval between the first and second doses. “The period between the two is a period where you have weak antibodies and can create escape mutants,” says John Moore. **The U.K. has given public guidance that it’s OK to wait several months between doses of the vaccine, “and that troubles us because it’s a breeding ground for escaped mutants.”** ### Convergent evolution When a mutation develops independently in several versions of the virus over time, that’s called convergent evolution, and it’s a sign that the change confers an important advantage, says Pavitra Roychoudhury, PhD, a research associate in the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. Early evidence suggests the E484K change does indeed give the virus a significant leg up. ### Reinfection The cases include [a 45-year-old health care executive](https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202101.0132/v1) working in Brazil. After recovering from the infection in May 2020, she had a more severe bout of it in October, which researchers found was caused by a variant carrying the E484K change. A different team of researchers found [another reinfection](https://virological.org/t/spike-e484k-mutation-in-the-first-sars-cov-2-reinfection-case-confirmed-in-brazil-2020/584) in a 37-year-old doctor in Brazil caused by a version of the coronavirus carrying the E484K change, with [another](https://virological.org/t/sars-cov-2-reinfection-by-the-new-variant-of-concern-voc-p-1-in-amazonas-brazil/596) documented in a 29-year-old in Brazil. ### Vaccines less effective against new variants Several drugmakers have been testing their new COVID vaccines in South Africa, against a variant with escape mutations. Those tests show that while the shots still offer important protection, they are less effective. Johnson & Johnson [reported Friday](https://www.jnj.com/johnson-johnson-announces-single-shot-janssen-covid-19-vaccine-candidate-met-primary-endpoints-in-interim-analysis-of-its-phase-3-ensemble-trial) that its one-shot COVID vaccine was 72% effective overall in the U.S. and 57% effective in South Africa, where nearly all the COVID cases in the study were caused by the B.1.351 variant. The [Novavax vaccine](https://ir.novavax.com/news-releases/news-release-details/novavax-covid-19-vaccine-demonstrates-893-efficacy-uk-phase-3) was nearly 90% effective in the U.K., but just 60% effective in South Africa. “It’s not going to wipe it out [the effectiveness of vaccines], but it could reduce it, and that’s not something we want to see,” says John Moore. ## Comments on Twitter "The vaccines do work. They are a spectacular, if flawed achievement. Hopefully they protect the vaccinated for life. Let’s also hope they don’t drive evolution of escape mutants, or produce antibody dependent enhancement, or elevate infection risk as immunity develops." https://twitter.com/BretWeinstein/status/1408317089706770439?s=20 ### In an exchange with [[Claire Lehmann]] Last reply: https://twitter.com/clairlemon/status/1411229546968350722?s=20 Claire: "He overestimates the risks of mRNA vaccines in my view." "Might be. Hard to say given a systematic tendency to undercount adverse events. Regardless, It’s difficult to comprehend why we’d expose recovered Covid patients to any substantial risk, or put young people at risk to save the old, or vaccinate pregnant women. And why ignore [[Ivermectin]]?" "This really isn’t the case. **Ivermectin appears much less likely to drive immune escape. Meaning we are likely signing up for a treadmill of pandemic waves and booster shots if we don’t use the broader tool provided by this unfortunately unprofitable drug.**" "We seem to agree, then, that the vaccine strategy could make the pandemic worse. Extrapolating from that, we should be alert for signs that an ==escape-mutant== pattern is emerging in response to vaccination. We should do the same for [[Ivermectin]]. Yes?" ## [[DarkHorse Podcast]] discussing [[COVID Escape Mutants]] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNyAovuUxro With [[Bret Weinstein]] and Geert Vandne Bossche "Fascinating new DarkHorse Podcast conversation with @GVDBossche on whether the current vaccine program risks driving the evolution of COVID escape mutants." ## Notes