CDC's and FDA's Bedford slides are fascinating & he titled it "Continuing SARS-CoV-2 evolution under population immune pressure"; he is not WRONG, it's sub-optimal population VAX immune pressure
These 3 pieces of information tells the story & I like his work here but his take on why immune escape is happening so fast is misguided; its the infectious pressure on top of sub-optimal vax pressure
Update: I have to update this post. Why? Because my brain read this title etc. as virus immune pressure. That would be WRONG. The adaptations and evolution on the spike are a consequence of the sub-optimal vaccinal immune pressure mounting from the population (sub-optimal non-neutralizing antibodies (Abs)) so Dr. Bedford is actually correct. He should have placed the word ‘vaccinal’ before immune pressure but his graphs show us the alarm we felt would happen and are happening. This is why FDA/CDC did not pay him two minds. I must give his work the credit it deserves and fix my bad.
I have changed the title too to reflect this. He deserves credit for his graphs line up with what Geert VB and myself and others have been arguing. It is clear that there is substantial immune escape due to the vaccines, NOT the virus. Though if we were to reduce the infectious pressure (large amounts of circulating virus in a pandemic and virus not returning to baseline post new curve/wave) in light of the mounting immune pressure, that would leave less/little virus spike to be pressured by the sub-optimal vaccinal Abs and thus reduce the selection pressure to select for more infectious variants.
Its the sub-optimal pressure due to an immature developing incomplete, population immune response that is pressuring the virus’s spike and driving selection pressure for more infectious variants.
We have grossly underestimated the evolutionary capacity of the virus to evolve and adapt to the ongoing infectious pressure on top of the mounting sub-optimal immune pressure driving selection of infectious variant after variant.
Dr. Trevor Bedford at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center; good work. His lab. Brave work too.
This chart shows that vaccine effectiveness declines markedly due to two doses and booster. This is due to the mutated spike and thus viral immune escape. More for Omicron.
As usual, if he discloses the true conclusion that the fake vax is at fault, his work will never see the light of day.
There is never any evidence provided for the claims that the variants are more infectious. Just expert opinion. Mass vaccination with a non vaccine is just as likely a cause.