The biggest news for me is clearer signs of brain damage, at this stage mainly concerning the connections between neurons. We are now thinking that “brain fog” which has been associated with #longcovid may also be a result of synaptic loss.
The other big news is that the variants are still evolving and mutating. I warned about BA.2.75. That wave was flattened by competition with some lasting BA.5 variants and BA.4.6. The next variants to make a mark will be BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 and now XBB, which is a recombinant of BA.2.75 and infectious BA.2.10.1. (REF). All these new variants seem to escape vaccine and natural immunity. We know that repeated infection is not only probable but its damage is cumulative. This year alone Omicron has formed some 500 to 600 new variants. I warned 12 months ago that we were heading into “covid permanency” (meaning we will have to live with this virus forever now), and predicted that hundreds of thousands of Australians will be debilitated by Covid19. Last year I warned that vaccine freaks will need to get the jab every 2-3 months. That time frame is shorting again, and new research shows that the vaccinated are particularly vulnerable to get covid19 in the first 2 weeks after vaccination, not to mention that anything can go wrong when you have each experimental vaccine.