Misinterpretation of acute antibody responses after administration of updated booster vaccines to Covid-19 vaccine recipients conveys a dangerously misleading public health message

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It's impossible to convey the intricacies of my analysis through this short communication, but I must emphasize the impending emergence of yet another, but spectacularly different SARS-CoV-2 (SC-2) variant that I strongly predict to cause highly virulent vaccine breakthrough infections (VBTIs) in highly COVID-19 (C-19) vaccinated populations

This conclusion can be drawn from the notable rise in the prevalence of JN.1, which has incorporated several replication-enhancing mutations beyond the spike (S) protein, combined with the concomitant increase in the C-19 hospitalization and mortality rates, as currently observed in the USA and several European countries. 

Painfully, several scientists and so-called ‘experts’ persist in the belief that currently circulating variants, including JN.1, remain neutralized after vaccination with updated booster vaccines (e.g., with the XBB.1.5 vaccine). They erroneously conclude that the updated (2023-2024) C-19 vaccine works against the new JN.1 variant! However, they don’t grasp that updated booster vaccines only confer a short-lived neutralization activity to the cross variant-reactive anti-S Abs previously induced as a result of steric immune refocusing (SIR) following vaccine breakthrough infections (VBTIs) with newly emerging variants. This short-lived neutralization effect rapidly transitions into a more stable suboptimal infection-inhibiting (i.e., infection-mitigating) effect. The latter causes highly C-19 vaccinated populations to collectively exert immune selection pressure on viral infectiousness and, therefore, drives the propagation of more infectious variants! By boosting previously SIR-induced cross variant-reactive Abs, updated booster vaccines will only expedite SIR upon VBTIs with newly emerging variants, thereby accelerating the emergence of more infectious immune escape variants! 

In highly C-19 vaccinated populations, immune refocusing to MHC class I-unrestricted T cells results in diminished boosting of previously induced neutralizing Abs1, thereby dampening the production of non- neutralizing anti-S Abs. NNAbs have repeatedly been reported to facilitate VBTIs with newly emerging SC- 2 variants by virtue of their infection-enhancing effect. NNAbs also have the potential to inhibit viral trans infection, thereby preventing viral trans fusion and, consequently, impeding viral virulence. 

As the production of these NNAbs produced upon VBTIs in highly C-19 vaccinated populations will soon collectively decrease to suboptimal levels, SC-2 is poised to undergo a spectacular mutation to overcome the immune selection pressure collectively exerted by these Abs on the virus's capacity to prevent their virulence-inhibiting activity. This strongly suggests that in populations with high C-19 vaccination rates, elevated infection rates may no longer come with the benefit of protection against severe C-19 disease. 

The unexpected emergence of Omicron and its significant mutational changes in the receptor-binding domain of S protein (S-RBD) has caught us all off guard. The advent of Omicron was a scourge as it paved the way for the imminent appearance of a new variant, only expected to emerge much more suddenly and come with mutations (presumably in the O-glycosylation profile) that are even much more spectacular. Unlike the previous situation with the advent of Omicron, the consequence this time will not be limited to heightened infectiousness but will be compounded by a high level of viral virulence. As I repeated over and over again: “Society in highly C-19 vaccinated countries will be caught off guard”. 

Unvaccinated individuals, though, have long since transitioned from humoral adaptive immunity to trained cell-based innate immunity to cope with the variants. Therefore, the feared variant poses no problem for a non-vaccinated individual in good health. That’s why I keep saying that ‘Africa will win’. 

I am describing the above-summarized insidious immune subversive mechanisms in more detail in a new article; however, it may not be finished before the tsunami hits... What else can I do at this point other than to cite Sherlock Holmes:
"How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?” 

Last, but not least:
As the emergence of Omicron has unambiguously been driven by the large-scale C-19 vaccination program conducted in the middle of the SC-2 pandemic, all stakeholders of this mass vaccination program, starting with the WHO, are to be blamed and held accountable for the current deplorable evolution of this pandemic.
In their incredibly naive belief that through technology, they can control biology, technocrats have been seduced into pursuing sophisticated technologies without fully understanding their biological impact. Their C-19 mass vaccination program not only transformed this natural pandemic into an immune escape pandemic but also into what must now be referred to as the largest and most dangerous gain-of-function experiment ever conducted in the history of biology—one that mankind has unleashed on its very own species.... 

Geert Vanden Bossche, DVM, PhD – December 17th 2023 

There is no greater impotence in all the world like knowing you are right and
that the wave of the world is wrong, yet the wave crashes upon you. – Norman Mailer “ 

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_{1 The production of polymeric (IgM) NNAbs is thought to be triggered by the interaction of previously induced neutralizing Abs that exhibit a strongly diminished neutralizing capacity towards the new infecting S variant.}