Replacement For Omicron BA.5? Positive Outlook

Omicron BA.5 is declining at a rapid pace in the United Kingdom and in the United States, BA.5 is slowly going down. The United States still has the highest death rate from mainly Covid complications in the world. Click the chart to enlarge…

Previous variants of Covid are disappearing. BA.4, is only 7.7 percent in the United States. BA.1.1 and BA.1.1529 no longer exist. Eventually, this is going to happen to BA.2.12.1 and both BA.4.6 and BA.4. As this post is being written, there is no indication for a replacement for BA.5! Normally in the past, a new variant or variants emerge and start an upward trend replacing previous variants and then the leading variant itself. This does not mean Covid is going to disappear! It would be nice if this was the case but extremely unlikely. This may in fact indicate a mild Covid winter! Interesting to note, that BA.2.75 discovered as a new variant some weeks ago is not listed at all. Like both BA.1s, it has disappeared very quickly! 

Hospitalizations in the US went down by 3.8 percent in the last week of July 2022 which is good news. Slight increase in ICU patients previously but that is also started to go down. More good news is the test positivity rate in the United States has started to go down as well. The death rate in the United States has been flat, 393 per day which is the largest rate in the world. But that is predicted to go down in the coming weeks or months. 

Japan which has avoided many infections early on in the pandemic is now getting hit hard with BA.5, they have the largest increase in new cases! Australia which is second highest is going down along with countries like Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Same with hospitalizations for these countries. They are also going down except for Germany which is slightly going up. 

 Dr. Fauci’s Insane Vaccination Theory

Dr. Fauci who is 81 years old decided he’s going to retire at the end of Biden’s term did an interview with the Washington Post…Here he makes the claim that vaccinations will control Omicron BA.5! He has been making this claim since the beginning of the pandemic! The virus has changed but Fauci has not. Which means, Dr. Fauci is outdated! During the interview, Fauci tries to scare people, if they don’t get vaccinated, he says, they will be in trouble with their health! High vaccination rate in the UK for example was unable to control BA.5 infections. President Biden another example, vaccinated and boosted twice. Tested positive for Covid. His vaccinations were unable to control the virus.

Long term Covid is going to leave some with long term disabilities, others will recover but it takes longer. Longer term Covid has been around for awhile. Complications from vaccinations or Covid is complex, currently there is not data to seperate the two. Other viruses are still active, the flu is low because it’s summer but will increase as the weather turns into autumn and winter.

16 to 24 years old have the lowest vaccination rate of any group, however, according to the data, this group has a high level of antibodies. Your immune system protects you from thousands of viruses, bacteria and so on. Covid is no different which is why this group has a high level of antibodies but a low vaccinated rate.

Omicron Exposes the Flaws On Narrow Vaccination Policies

Covid 19 is changing at a rapid pace, each subvariant of Omicron is spreading more easily than previous ones and the latest being BA.5. At the moment, BA.2.75 is a new Omicron variant which is now being monitored since July 7th, 2022. Previously, it was not possible to comment on the new variant due to a lack of data, but now there is some data, but not much. More data will be forthcoming. From BA.4 to BA.5 to BA.2.75 all mutated from BA.2 which mutated from BA.1 of Omicron. The new BA.2.75 is not a recombination of other variants so it’s not a hybrid! Although the name which was given to it, “Centaurus” suggests that it is.

Currently, BA.2.75 is 50 percent of the cases in India. However, India has low levels of BA.5, so BA.2.75 is competing with BA.2 in India, which we know is spreading more easily. It’s unknown yet, how it will do against BA.5, it’s possible that it may hit a brick wall once BA.5 cases increase to a certain level. Or it may also dominate BA.5. So far there is no evidence that it will make people sicker. Although that could change.

As far as BA.5, in some cases in certain parts of the world, its causes more disease than less while in other parts of the world not as much. The United States has experienced an increase in hospitalizations because of BA.5 but it’s been tiny so far. There also has been a slight increase in cases for ventilation beds but remains flat. In other words, not surging like it did back at the peak of Omicron back in April of 2022. Covid symptoms overall are surging to peak levels and may even surpass the previous record of BA.1 and BA.2! On the bright side, deaths in the UK affected by BA.5, are going down.

This pandemic has been used and in some cases continues to be used for government expansion over people’s lives! The surge of BA.5, for example, has the UK thinking about bringing back government restrictions that as we know had little to no impact. No data on mask-wearing with Omicron. New York passed a rule back in response to Omicron known as Rule 2.13 under the Isolation and Quarantine procedures. The rule says…

“whenever appropriate to control the spread of a highly contagious communicable disease, the State Commissioner of Health may issue and/or may direct the local health authority to issue isolation and/or quarantine orders, consistent with due process of law, to all such persons as the State Commissioner of Health shall determine appropriate.” In other words, if you tested positive for Covid, the public health authority would issue you an order on where and how long you must isolate from the rest of the public. Some government officials sued the state of NY arguing that the Isolation and Quarantine procedures were in violation of the New York State Constitution and a violation of the separation of powers.

On July 8th, the Justice of the Supreme Court of Cattaraugus County sided with the plaintiffs declaring the rule to be in violation of the New York State Constitution and a violation of the separation of powers. The Judge’s ruling says this…

“Respondents offered no scientific data or expert testimony why Rule 2.13 was a necessary response to combat COVID-19, but instead contend only that it would provide a quick and nimble approach to combating the pandemic,”  “Nevertheless, during oral argument of this matter, at a time when we hope that the worst of the pandemic is behind us, counsel for the Respondents were unable to cite any instance where the procedure set forth in Rule 2.13 was actually utilized.”

Some have called government restrictions overbearing regulations, and government conditioning for more future regulations. While NY restrictions on people who may have Covid got some relief from a judge, China’s communist party used the most strict lockdown measures in the world known as the zero Covid strategy, which had people screaming from their windows in pain and hunger (not allowed to go food shopping) along with massive testing and shutting down work causing shortages. For the rest of the world, most people have returned to mostly normal situations but some of the media and now more liberal states in America like New York and California are hyping up the latest subvariant BA.5 as the “Ninja” variant! Making suggestions at this point with recommending previous government restrictions.

Reinfections are increasing as Omicron BA.5 Continues to Spread At Record Pace

According to the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee, people who have recovered from Covid 19, can get reinfected again as early as 28 days! BA.4 is also included in this new reinfection rate along with those who are up to date with their vaccinations! However, the government goes on to say vaccinations prevent severe illness without a random study to suggest such a conclusion. Also, they don’t say how long this unconfirmed protection against severe illness lasts! Wouldn’t you think this would be important to conduct some random studies to try and find out?

Vaccination losing its efficacy as Covid Continues To Change

18 months ago, it was assumed (even I assumed it) that vaccinations would become yearly much like the flu shots. This means, the virus would become more predictable, and like the flu shot, vaccinations would be updated on a regular basis to account for various seasons of the virus but this hasn’t been the case. As Omicron progresses, its changes have been so fast that science hasn’t been able to keep up! As a result, this idea of vaccine updates as a viable option may not be the case anymore! According to Dr. Onyema Obgbuagu of Yale School of Medicine, updates on vaccinations may not have a broader range of protection against new Omicron variants and subvariants!

Covid-19 Vaccine Effectiveness against the Omicron (B.1.1.529) Variant -The New England Journal of Medicine

“Between November 27, 2021, and January 12, 2022, a total of 886,774 eligible persons infected with the omicron variant, 204,154 eligible persons infected with the delta variant, and 1,572,621 eligible test-negative controls were identified. At all time points investigated and for all combinations of primary course and booster vaccines, vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic disease was higher for the delta variant than for the omicron variant. No effect against the omicron variant was noted from 20 weeks after two ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 doses…

This study did not get a lot of media attention from big corporate outlets. This brings us to the next item of concern…

The Problem With Policy Being Influenced by Big Drug Companies in the United States

This began with the Trump administration, which cut red tape and change the definition of a vaccine in order to fast-track vaccination approval. It was thought to be impossible as previous MRA vaccines did not get approval while some experts predicted 2 years, but within nine months, the start of many vaccinations began! Three vaccines were eventually approved in the United States as previous blog posts covered some of that which became the dominant treatment for Covid 19 for practically all ages! Other treatments were shunned especially when the medication was used for other diseases, only experimental treatments by drug companies were more accepted but not as much as the three vaccines.

Billions of dollars of taxpayer money were poured into drug companies making vaccines. Media outlets who were sponsored by big drug companies reframed from any major criticism of their experimental vaccines! They promoted the idea that this would stop the spread of Covid, then they promoted the idea that this would save their lives by reducing the symptoms. Currently, there is no study confirming such an assumption. Even Dr. Fauci who recently got Covid despite being vaccinated a number of times! Here is what he said during an interview with Fox News…

“At my age, being vaccinated and boosted, even though it didn’t protect me against infection, I feel confident that it made a major role in protecting me from progressing to severe disease,” said Fauci, who is 81 and has been in charge of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since the Reagan administration. But where are the studies that would lead to such a conclusion from Dr. Fauci? Why isn’t he going by data rather than his belief? And why haven’t studies been made concerning the impact of vaccinations on covid symptoms? This is what happens when medicine gets political! Common sense falls by the wayside for a political agenda!

Omicron has been changing very rapidly, reducing the main three vaccinations in the US effectiveness. The CDC reported that after 3 months of the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine there is no protection! However, we still see requirements for getting vaccinated! What is the point if you are not going to have protection from the virus after 3 months? It’s not possible to keep vaccinating people every 20 weeks!

In the early stages of the disease, people were taking risks with these vaccines because the virus was unknown, and at the time it was common sense to take such a risk especially if you had a pre-condition or at high risk due to age, but now since we know a lot more about the disease.

The US military run by the Biden administration, where required vaccinations are one of the main reasons that recruitment is down. Schools also are mandating vaccinations for kids in the United States making some parents not happy that people want to stick a needle into their children whether it works or not, whether it may affect them or not!

While the US quickly approved vaccines from its three companies but slowed down considerably not approving other promising vaccines like covaxin, novavax, an inhaled vaccine, which are considered good alternatives and had success. Finally, on June 7th, 2022, novavax was approved for use for people 18 and over. The other two are still waiting to be approved! However, there is no spiked vaccine that is totally safe, there is always a risk even with the safer ones! Vaccinations are not all bad, but you have to weigh the risk factor and benefits when making such decisions about what goes into your body.

We are certainly not going to live with Covid 19, with the flu model, the virus changes way too fast for that. We should be more focused and more money spent on treatments outside of vaccinations! There are still some good ones that still work against Omicron BA.5. But we need more research and development in this area. The vaccine focus in the United States hasn’t worked and becoming less effective, as the virus changes medicine has to change too!

Are We Still In A Emergency Status For Covid-19?

A doctor in Nigeria coin this phrase: “Omicron: The Vaccine That Couldn’t Be Made”, and he could be correct on this! In the previous post, it was explained how Omicron was used as Covid 19, is more political than about the science. However, a week later after the post, cases of Omicron skyrocketed to new records. Even just recently, in the UK, their new cases increased to an all-time high!

A local newspaper which is immersed into the political side of dealing with Covid 19, wrote this…

When Omicron first came out and was confirmed to spread more easily than Delta and other previous variants, imposing more restrictions, mask mandates, vaccination mandates and so on. Here we see in this article, despite Omcron: BA.2 being more contagious than BA.1, cases are not going to increase! But why, all he says he is more optimistic! Since this article, cases in the United States hit an all-time high, but have new cases have declined considerabilty since and so have deaths, mainly complications from Covid 19. Only a small percentage of the population who were infected have died directly from Covid-19. As far as Omicron, those infected and recovered from BA.1 have high immunity not only against Delta, but also BA.2, likewise, if one is infected with BA.2, that person is more immunity to Delta and BA.1.

If you take into account people who were vaccinated and those who have herd immunity or both, make up a high degree of protection. It is a good idea for high risk people to get vaccinated rather than everyone get vaccinated! Because there is a health risk, not everyone will have a positive effect with the vaccine in fact many have died from being vaccinated, 114,000 were hospitalized from vaccinations in the United States. Also, you can’t keep vaccinating huge populations every six months! It’s not practical. You have to treat it like any other virus!

Recently, drug companies have been coming applying for a 4th booster shot, one company Moderna has applied for an emergency use authorization for another dose of its Covid-19 vaccine in the United States! Their application is for everyone 18 and over if this gets approved. A question comes to mind, is it really an emergency to vaccinate healthy 18 to 25 year olds or may have had the infection who have been vaccinated 3 times already? Do we need a specified booster for Omicron the first one I might add since the original Covid-19 strain came out in 2020, since Omicron has been spreading for quite some time now creating large amounts of immunity about 8 months or so, longer than vaccinations.

What about the 4th dose creating more antibodies? Isn’t this the best reason to get another booster? This is always been a selling point to keep on boosting people every six months. Remember, drug companies are making many millions of dollars with all these shots so they have a huge incentive to keep the booster factory going! While it is true, the 4th booster will increase antibodies but what does this mean for long-term immunity, or for t-cells, and other cells connected to the immune system? Just increasing antibodies doesn’t tell you anything! We need evidence, does these continual vaccinations like the 4th booster shot reduce hospitalizations or death or both? Another question, is it an emergency for low risk people like 18 to 25 or even older who are healthy? Is this low risk group at such a risk of having major hospitalziations and death from Omicron variants? Most likely not! It would make more sense for those at higher risk! But even so, this is not an emergency at this stage of the pandemic in fact, we should be transitioning to the endemic stage! Like Denmark!

Denmark dropped all it’s restrictions thereby ending the pandemic in their counntry. The government said that Covid 19 is no longer a threat to society, meaning that the hospitals will not be overrun by Covid patients which was why restrictions were put in place in that country! Government, mainstream media, Denmark’s people, all in agreement about going back to normal, something you don’t see in the United States!

Using Omicron Rather Than Using Science

We are normally in the heart of flu season but since Covid 19, we strangely don’t have many flu cases anymore! What happened? Instead, the CDC which is the “Center for Disease Control” in the United States had estimated that 73 percent of the new Covid cases were from the Omicron variant. This was very significant because the new data from the CDC was suggesting that the new variant Omicron had increased six times in the United States in a matter of just one week! Making it one of the fastest if not thee fastest virus to ever spread through the population that ever existed! CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky claimed that these new numbers were a reflection of the same kind of growth seen in other parts of the world.

As of nine days ago, few Omicron-related deaths have been officially confirmed so far worldwide. Not long after the new data was released by the CDC, on December 25th, they revised their data significally. Instead of 73 percent of the new cases being Omicron as a so called reflection of the rest of the world, that number dropped down to 58 percent of new cases! This means there is still quite a number people about 41 percent who are still getting the Delta variant. But the media continues to use the Omicron variant when reporting cases. The first esitmate came out from the CDC, there was only one confirmed death (an unvaccinate man from Texas) from Omicron in the United States.

The CDC doesn’t have any data yet, on how many hospitalizations and deaths are related to the new variant around the country. But New York City’s health director said that while Omicron cases are rising quickly, hospitalizations are not at this time. News reports are indicating there is mounting evidence that Omicron isn’t as bad as previous variants. Milder symptoms than other strains while studies are reporting like in the UK that the hospitalization rate from the previous variants to Omicron have decreaed. Even in my own state, it was reported a 75 percent increase in cases which is well below the number we saw last year, but even with a 75 percent increase, the hospitalization rate increased by 12 percent. Another indication, the new Covid variant is not at lethal as previous ones, which is great!

Here is the U.K Study reported by a liberal media outlet, MSNBC…

The U.K. Health Security Agency said individuals with omicron are estimated to be between 31% and 45% less likely to attend emergency departments compared to those with delta, and 50-70% less likely to require admission to hospital.

The U.K study was conducted on 132 patients, South Africa where Omicron originated from was saying basically the same thing. It may take another month or so to determine Omicron’s impact, but there is some questionable activities that have been going on in response to the new variant. Why are there new mandates from government and attempts from the Biden Administration to Omicron when there is so little known about its impact? Why was the estimate from the CDC massively wrong? It had no such problem with its estimates with previous variants of Covid 19. The CDC data is not always right which is one of the reasons why it requires revisions in its data. But there is a good chance that the overestimated data may have been on purpose to help push an agenda.

In the MSNBC report, 14 peoople had died from Omicron after 28 days ranging in age 52 to 96 years old. But this lacked some important and I would say some key data, did these 14 people die directly from Omicron or did they die from an Omicron complication which means they had other underlining health issues which also contributed to their demise.

Age plays a part with Covid 19, but more so if there are underlining health issues going on. Breaking down the population in the U.K study says that 74 people out of the 132 were double vaccinated, 17 people had both shots with a booster, 27 were unvaccinated, 8 had one shot, and the rest which was 6 people they were uncertain. The majority of them in the U.K. Study who were infected with Omicron had some form of vaccination in them. This is an indication that Omicron variant is the most adjusted variant to the vaccines being currently taken so far.

Omicron has more mutated spikes of proteins than previous variants, about 32 of them. These spikes fit into the cell expanding the virus. Vaccines have used anti-bodies which clump on those spikes making it impossible for it fit into the cell thereby neutralizing the virus ability to infect normal cells. However, the anti-bodies used in the vaccines have been reduced, enabling Omicron to spread in certain vaccinated people. According to a South Africian study, Johnson & Johnson has been pretty effective against Omicron so far in the general population. In their study in particular, they took a look at b and t-cells from various subjects, there were three groups. One group was Johnston and Johnston, Phizer was the second group, and the last group was unvaccinated but recovered from Covid. The results look promising, 70 to 80 percent of the CD4 and CD8 T cell response was maintained against Covid spiked proteins which are used to infect cells. CD4 produces anti-bodies while CD8 will directly kill cells infected by the virus.

MSNBC along with U.K. researchers were quick to point out that this data was preliminary and more data would be required to make an conclusion. This news has put some fear into their vaccination push, along with their belief that more government intervention is required. New cases in my state are about half of what they were in 2020 at this time of the year and the fact that less people are dying this year than last year is great news. But there is some bad news, more fully vaccinated people are getting just as sick with Covid 19 as unvaccinated people. More vaccinated people are getting Covid than ever before. As more people are getting vaccinated, we are also seeing an increase in bad side-effects which includes death in some cases. Some people think it’s bad to die from Covid but I think it is just as bad to die from being vaccinated or die from any other health issue!

Here is an interesting story, Keith Smith, on a ventilator in a coma that was induced coma required a court order to get a drug called, ivermectin. Covid 19, treatments are as controversial as it was during the AIDS pandemic because the same man Dr. Fauci was running the show. Dr. Fauci is a firm believer in new drugs which have no history or not much history so much so they he discounts existing drugs for treatment. This poltical ideal which is not using science, caused Keith Smith who was in dire straits to be denied a Covid treatment. Darla Smith who is Keith’s wife had petitioned the hospital to give her husband ivermectin. Darla who also had Covid 19, had a milder case of it and recovered easily but her husband did not.

There was no absolute that ivermectin would save her husband. A week later, her husband had passed away, after spending 3 weeks in the hosptial and the last week of getting invermectin which amounted to two doses. She wanted to have it done earlier but there she had to get a court order and then she got the court order, the treatment was delayed for 9 days as the hospital was trying to figure out the court order which it did not want to do. Eventually the court order was implemented. The treatment is known to work better when patients are not near death, this was the last restort to save her husband which didn’t work. Darla I believe was a hero, she did what she could do at the time, but Lord said it was his time!

The human body is complex intelligently designed by God, people are going to have different reactions to various viruses and the treatment to those viruses. Covid 19 creates spike proteins which is a lethal part of the virus. The vaccines, all of them create spike proteins. What is dangerous, it’s uncontrolled. These spiked proteins just like the ones made by Covid 19 can have a negative side effect on people that can lead to complications and in some cases death. So a one size fits all doesn’t apply in this case. However, it doesn’t mean people should not get vaccinated if they chose to do so! But it should be their choice because there is a risk. None of the Covid 19 vaccines have been long-term tested like other vaccines.

It’s foolish and political to narrow the options and put the most focus on vaccinations. Covid 19, is not going away, it’s going to be around for a long time. It is going to mutate, adapt more and more to the vaccinates which means vaccinates should be updated, and treatments should be researched more. While allowing existing drugs which have had a lot of research done with good results on the same level as the vaccines and new drugs are allowed to be used. These treatments should also be allowed at different stages of having Covid 19 under a doctor’s care rather than just new drugs on the market! Also, these vaccines for Covid are still under research and Dr. Peter McCullough who is a cardiologist, epidemiologist, and internist who also manages COVID-19 patients points this out, “people cannot be mandated to participate in research”.

Update: FDA Fact Sheet says antiviral oral drug created by Pfizer does not recommend this drug for people who have pre-existing conditions like severe kidney or liver disease. Also, FDA says that the drug can cause very bad side-effects which could also be life-threatening for those who use these common medications like anti-coagulants, some anti-depressants, and some cholesterol-lowering statins. You can click on the link for further information.

Censorship by big tech has made the Covid 19 battle more political. Science changes as knowlege grows, big tech should not take the role of gatekeeper for certain political parties. Dr. Robert Malone who was one of the main contributors for inventing mRNA vaccine technology used in most vaccines for Covid had his twitter account banned indefintely. This is because he is against vaccine mandates for children. The doctor believes that natural immunity has better protection than the vaccines. He also believes that the fight against Covid is too political along with highly driven by pharmaceutical industries who are using government power to maximize their profits.

While he still believes in vaccinations just not the way the government is going about it, these beliefs are not in line with twitter’s terms of service. He is not the only one nor the last one to experience such nonsense, Alex Berenson who used to work for the New York Times, filed a lawsuit against Twitter earlier this month over its ban of his account months earlier. Both moved their writings to an up and coming popular platform called, Substack. Both argue this it’s in violation of their First Amendment rights, twitter is a private company which is given extra protection from lawsuits thanks to Congress. The law needs to be reformed, a total removal of the law would harm smaller platforms. It’s unlikely that Berenson will win his lawsuit in court.

Natural Immunity Cause

Back in January 2021, there were 300,000 new positive cases for Covid 19. But by Feburary 21st, there was a huge decline, cases when from 300,000 to 55,000! How could have that happened in such a short period of time? Keep in mind, vaccinations started in December and it was limited to certain groups like health care workers, and people at a certain age and later on it was expanded months later. Almost six percent of the American population was vaccinated in Feburary of 2021. One could not conclude with any sort of rational that slightly less than 6 percent of the American population being vaccinated at that time was responsible for an 82 percent decline in new Covid 19 cases which happened in Feburary 2021!

In another country called Israel, in May of 2021, there were 835,792 people who had recovered from Covid 19, out of those cases 72 people had reinfections. Then a study looked at vaccinated people over 5 million and out of those 3,000 people were infected despite being fully vaccinated. This means people fully vaccinated were 6x likely to get Covid 19 than those who had recovered from Covid. While Covid keeps on mutating and this was a previous point I made awhile ago, vaccines that are being used right now are not updated like a flu shot would be, but the virus continues to change with its mutations. In Israel which is one of the most vaccinated countries in the world we can learn from. Serious sickness is on the rise there among fully vaccinated people over 60 years old in Israel as well as other parts of the world.

Herzog Hospital in Jerusalem, informed local media that 95% of severely ill COVID-19 patients are fully vaccinated and those who haven’t gotten sick despite being vaccinated populate the hospital the most overall! This is why Israel continues to approve more boosters as previous shots failure rate continues to increase, the latest being their 4th. This 4th booster is currently for the elderly but could be expanded later on. There could be a 5th booster approved in 2022, starting its use in 2023.

Natural Immunity when working properly is able to detect mutated variants, while vaccines only focus on one particular protein which makes it easier for Covid containing five proteins to escape detection and then mutate to avoid being destroyed by the vaccination. When a person recovers from Covid, they develop antibodies against all parts of the virus not just one, plus memory T cells. This in itself is better protection than a vaccination! It also explains why cases among the vaccinated are increasing along with serious sicknesses among the vaccinated. But all is not lost as we shall see later…

Studies are beginning to show that omicron infections are causing more resistence toward the Delta variant of Covid 19. If confirmed by more studies, this is a sign that Omicron may in fact be the variant which ends the pandemic. However, Omiron is most likely going to run wild through the population perhaps until middle or end of March. This is when governments may reinstall restrictions again. There is already talk about mandating masks again in certain cities. We seen last year, that masks had little impact on the rising cases of Covid 19. There needs to be adjustments on how to handle Covid 19, and mandating vaccinating 70 percent of the world’s population over and over again is not the solution! There are other solutions not so vaccine focus meaning vaccinations will be still needed but not mandated due to the complexity of the health of the world’s population. We need other methods and treatments that may have better results in fighting the virus!