by Dr. Joseph Mercola, Mercola:
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- The latest SARS-CoV-2 variant, JN.1, was first detected in the U.S. in September 2023. By mid-December, it accounted for about half of all COVID cases in the country
- According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rapid spread of JN.1 suggests it may be more transmissible and/or has greater immune-evading abilities
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- A vaccinology concept called “immune refocusing” explains how more dangerous viruses can be created by leaky vaccines that do not prevent infection
- By continuing with boosters, we accelerate immune escape. Over time, variants will get better and better at evading our immune responses, and those who keep taking boosters will be the most vulnerable to infection of all
- Because of the mutations seen in JN.1, vaccinologist Geert Vanden Bossche, Ph.D., predicts we will “very soon” see variants that are more virulent but less infectious. If this happens, healthy unjabbed individuals are unlikely to be affected because their first line of defense — their innate immune system — still works as it should. The jabbed, on the other hand, whose innate immune systems have not been trained, and whose adaptive immune systems have become increasingly useless, will be at very high risk of severe complications and death
The latest SARS-CoV-2 variant, JN.1, was first detected in the U.S. in September 2023. By mid-December, it accounted for about half of all COVID cases in the country,1 and calls to get the latest “updated” COVID shot resumed. Cases associated with this variant are also on the rise in the U.K., China and India.2
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rapid spread of JN.1 suggests it may be more transmissible and/or has greater immune-evading abilities:3
“JN.1 is similar to BA.2.86 but has an additional mutation (L455S) in the spike protein. JN.1 continues to cause an increasing share of infections and is now the most widely circulating variant in the United States.
For the two weeks ending on December 23, 2023, JN.1 is expected to account for 39-50% of all SARS-CoV-2 variants. That’s an increase from the projected prevalence two weeks ago of 15-29%.
We’re also seeing an increasing share of infections caused by JN.1 in travelers, wastewater, and most regions around the globe. JN.1’s continued growth suggests that the variant is either more transmissible or better at evading our immune systems than other circulating variants.”
JN.1 Is Not Associated With More Severe Disease
The CDC does, however, stress that JN.1 does not appear to cause more severe disease than any of the other variants we’ve seen in the last couple of years, most of which have caused nothing more than common cold symptoms. The New York Times even noted:4
“As far as experts can tell, JN.1 does not seem to be causing severe illness in most other people, though even a mild case can still make you feel ‘quite miserable for three or four days,’ Dr. [William] Schaffner [infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center] said.
The symptoms of a JN.1 infection are similar to those caused by previous COVID variants, including a cough, fever, body aches and fatigue … JN.1 will most likely remain the dominant version of the coronavirus through spring, Dr. Schaffner said.”
According to data from the British Office for National Statistics, the most commonly reported symptoms among COVID-19 patients in December 2023 included:5,6
| Runny nose (31.1%) | Cough (22.9%) |
| Headache (20.1%) | Weakness or tiredness (19.6%) |
| Muscle ache (15.8%) | Sore throat (13.2%) |
| Trouble sleeping (10.8%) | Worry or anxiety (10.5%) |
Of these, the only symptoms that can be considered “novel” are problems sleeping and worry/anxiety, which could easily be the natural outgrowth of having spent the last four years bombarded with fear-based propaganda about COVID.
Mass Vaccinating During Active Pandemic Is a Disaster
Despite three years of evidence to the contrary, the CDC still insists that existing vaccines are the best way to protect yourself against JN.1. In the video above, vaccinologist Geert Vanden Bossche, Ph.D., discusses the challenges of controlling transmission with vaccines, as even with mRNA technology we’re still chasing the virus.
His resume includes work with GSK Biologicals, Novartis Vaccines, Solvay Biologicals and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. As some of you may recall, in 2021, Vanden Bossche7 published an open letter8 to the World Health Organization in which he warned that implementing a global mass vaccination campaign during the height of the pandemic could create an “uncontrollable monster” where evolutionary pressure will force the emergence of new and potentially more dangerous mutations.
“There can be no doubt that continued mass vaccination campaigns will enable new, more infectious viral variants to become increasingly dominant and ultimately result in a dramatic incline in new cases despite enhanced vaccine coverage rates. There can be no doubt either that this situation will soon lead to complete resistance of circulating variants to the current vaccines,” Vanden Bossche wrote.9
His warning fell on deaf ears, but evidence clearly shows that he was on the right track. Increasingly, variants have mutated to evade both natural and injection-based immunity, with those having received the COVID shots now being at higher risk of infection than their unjabbed peers.
The COVID Jabs Are Driving Potentially Hazardous Mutations
As explained by Vanden Bossche, the COVID jabs, from the beginning, have produced the wrong immune response, which inevitably leads to immune escape. In summary, when you vaccinate against one variant, in this case the original Wuhan strain, your immune system will produce antibodies against that strain.
When your immune system is then hit with a second variant — as is the case when the vaccine is a step behind — it will be overly focused on the original strain, which allows the second strain to pass through its defenses.
Vanden Bossche’s concern now is the possibility of variants capable of causing more severe symptoms. We haven’t seen that yet, but as he notes in this interview, the mutations are no longer limited to conserved domains shared by many variants, but are also found in other viral proteins, some of which may enhance infection.
He goes on to explain a vaccinology concept called “immune refocusing,” which is how more dangerous viruses can be created. Immune refocusing happens when you have a vaccine breakthrough infection, meaning the vaccine did not result in enough neutralizing antibodies to block the virus. This is also known as a “leaky vaccine.”
The breakthrough infection boosts production of previously induced antibodies, giving you very high titers. And, while they have very low neutralizing capacity, the sheer number of them can still have some neutralizing, albeit short-lived, effect on the virus.
During the time the antibodies have this neutralizing effect, they bind to the dominant epitopes (an epitope is the part of the antigen that is recognized by your immune system), and by doing so, the subdominant epitopes that normally are outcompeted by the dominant ones can now be recognized by your immune system.
The problem is that once these antibodies begin to lose their neutralizing capacity, they become sub-neutralizing, which allows for the propagation of more infectious variants. The mRNA jabs make immune refocusing all the more likely because they induce antibodies with low affinity to the immunodominant epitopes from the start, and automatically prioritize subdominant epitopes. This, Vanden Bossche explains, is why:
“… after the second dose of mRNA vaccine, we have seen cross-neutralizing antibodies against several different variants. Of course the manufacturers and the WHO were saying, ‘Oh wow, this is great … We are now broadening the immune response.’
[But] they have not taken into account that they [are] generating low-affinity antibodies and that is why they … very rapidly evolve toward sub-neutralization, suboptimal titers that … drive immune escape.”
The key take-home from all of this is that our immune response will never get any better if we continue this way. In fact, by continuing with boosters, all we’re doing is accelerating immune escape, Vanden Bossche warns. Over time, the variants will get better and better at evading our immune responses, and those who keep taking boosters will be the most vulnerable to infection of all.
This is the exact opposite of what vaccination is all about, and could result in an absolute public health disaster, especially should variants also begin to mutate into strains that cause more serious symptoms.
What Concerns Vanden Bossche About JN.1
While JN.1 does not appear to be any more troublesome than previous variants, Vanden Bossche worries about what this particular variant tells us about the immune pressures that gave rise to it in the first place.
