Tag Archives: Delta Variant

Fact Check : Singapore Advice On Omicron XBB?!

Take a look at the viral advice on the new Omicron XBB variant from Singapore, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : Omicron XBB Variant Advice From Singapore!

This message, purportedly advice on the new Omicron XBB variant from Singapore, has gone viral again on WhatsApp, and on social media.

It’s rather long, so feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

Singapore news!
Everyone is advised to wear a mask because the new COVID-Omicron XBB variant coronavirus is different, deadly and not easily detected properly:-

Symptoms of the novel COVID-Omicron XBB virus are as follows:-

1. Do not cough.
2. No fever.

There will only be many :-

3. Joint pain.
4. Headache.
5. Neck pain.
6. Upper back pain.
7. Pneumonia.
8. Generally have no appetite.

Of course, the COVID-Omicron XBB is 5 times more toxic than the Delta variant and has a higher mortality rate than the Delta.

It takes a shorter time for the condition to reach extreme severity, and sometimes there are no obvious symptoms.

Let’s be more careful!

This strain of the virus is not found in the nasopharyngeal region, and it directly affects the lungs, the “windows,” for a relatively short period of time.

Several patients diagnosed with Covid Omicron XBB were eventually classified as having no fever and no pain, but X-rays showed mild chest pneumonia.

Nasal swab tests are generally negative for COVID-Omicron XBB, and false-negative cases of nasopharyngeal tests are increasing.

This means that the virus can spread in the community and directly infect the lungs, leading to viral pneumonia, which in turn causes acute respiratory stress.

This explains why Covid-Omicron XBB has become highly contagious, highly virulent and lethal.

Please note, avoid crowded places, keep a distance of 1.5m even in open spaces, wear a double-layer mask, wear a suitable mask, wash your hands frequently when everyone is asymptomatic (no coughing or sneezing) .

This Covid Omicron “WAVE” is deadlier than the first wave of Covid-19. So we have to be very careful and take various enhanced coronavirus precautions.

Also maintain vigilant communication with your friends and family.

Don’t keep this information to yourself, share as much as possible with other relatives and friends, especially yours.

Show less

Truth : Omicron XBB Variant Advice From Singapore Is Fake News!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS circulating on WhatsApp, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : XBB Is An Omicron Subvariant

First, let me just clarify a common misconception. XBB is technically not a COVID-19 variant. It is a subvariant of the Omicron variant.

As per WHO definition, XBB is a recombinant subvariant of BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 sublineages. In other words – XBB is a mix of the BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 subvariants.

Fact #2 : XBB Is Detected Like Any Other COVID-19 Variant

The viral message falsely claims that XBB is not easily detected.

XBB is nothing more than a subvariant of Omicron. It is just as easily detected by the same PCR or RTK tests, as the original Omicron variant.

Fact #3 : XBB Symptoms Similar To Other Omicron Variants

The viral message falsely claims that XBB infections do not present with cough or fever.

XBB is just one of the many Omicron subvariants that include BA.5, BA.2.75, BJ.1, and BA.4.6. While they have changes to their spike protein, they have similar symptoms to the Omicron variant.

They are just different versions of the Omicron variant, and present with common symptoms like cough, fever, sore throat, cold, body aches.

Fact #4 : XBB Is Not 5X More Toxic Than Delta Variant

The term “toxic” is nonsensical when it comes to viruses, and tells us that the writer does not understand basic science, never mind virology.

He/she probably meant “virulent” or “virulence”, which refers to the virus’ ability to cause damage to its host. In any case, that is a false claim.

On 27 October 2022, the WHO Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) reported that there is no “substantial differences in disease severity for XBB infections”.

In other words – XBB infections produce similarly mild disease to Omicron. That is not surprising, because XBB is after all an Omicron subvariant.

The Delta variant (B.1.617.2), which caused havoc in mid 2021, causes more severe disease than any other COVID-19 variants, particularly in people who were not vaccinated.

An April 2022 study published in Nature showed that Omicron variant infections had 2X to 5X fewer fatalities than Delta variant infections.

Fact #5 : XBB Does Not Skip The Nasopharynx

This COVID-19 variant skips the nasopharynx and attacks the lungs directly is an old hoax that keeps getting rehashed for the variant of the day.

You may recall when Delta variant was the hot topic, people claimed that this is the variant that skips the nasopharynx and infects the lungs directly.

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is immobile, and travels through droplets and aerosols that we breathe in. It is not a homing missile that goes in search of a particular target.

As the air we breathe passes through the nasopharynx before it reaches the lungs, that is where most of the virus ends up, and that is why we swab the nasopharynx to detect COVID-19.

Fact #6 : Nasal / Nasopharyngeal Swab Test Will Still Pick Up XBB

The false claim that nasal / nasopharyngeal swab tests will turn up negative also keeps getting rehashed for the variant of the day.

People too earlier claimed that the nasal / nasopharyngeal swab tests would turn up negative for the Delta variant. It was nonsense then, it’s nonsense today.

Nasal or better still, nasopharyngeal swab, to detect the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus still works for the XBB subvariant.

Fact #7 : XBB Wave Is Not Deadlier Than First COVID-19 Wave

While the XBB wave is driving up cases in Singapore, the Ministry of Health there confirmed that the number of severe cases from XBB remained low:

This is very likely due to the resilience built up through vaccination and previous waves of infection. We are monitoring the trajectory closely.

More importantly, there is also no evidence of XBB causing more severe illness. So far, the large majority of patients continue to report mild symptoms such as sore throat or slight fever, especially if they have been vaccinated.

On October 11, for example, Singapore recorded over 11,000 new cases, but only 11 of them needed to be treated in the ICU, and only 50 needed oxygen supplementation.

That was much lower than the 171 ICU cases and 308 cases requiring oxygen supplementation at the peak of the Delta wave, and 54 ICU cases and 232 cases requiring oxygen supplementation at the peak of the Omicron wave.

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Fact Check | Science | Tech ARP

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Did FDA + CDC Hide Data On Failing COVID Vaccines?!

Leave a reply

Did the FDA and CDC hide data that show the COVID-19 vaccines failing as early as January 2021?!

Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : FDA + CDC Hid Data On Failing COVID-19 Vaccines!

People are sharing an article by The Epoch Times which claim or suggest that FDA and/or CDC hid data that show the COVID-19 vaccines failing as early as January 2021!

Here is an excerpt of The Epoch Times article. Feel free to skip to the next section for the facts:

FDA, CDC Hid Data on Spike in COVID Cases Among the Vaccinated: Documents

COVID-19 cases among vaccinated seniors soared in 2021, according to newly disclosed data that was acquired by U.S. health agencies but not presented to the public.

Humetrix Cloud Services was contracted by the U.S. military to analyze vaccine data. The company performed a fresh analysis as authorities considered in 2021 whether COVID-19 vaccine boosters were necessary amid studies finding waning vaccine effectiveness.

Humetrix researchers found that the proportion of total COVID-19 cases among the seniors was increasingly comprised of vaccinated people, according to the newly disclosed documents.

For the week ending on July 31, 2021, post-vaccination COVID-19 cases represented 73 percent of the cases among people 65 and older, the company found. The elderly were 80 percent fully vaccinated at the time.

Breakthrough infection rates were higher among those who were vaccinated early, the researchers found. They estimated that the rates were twice as high in those who had been vaccinated five to six months prior, when compared to people vaccinated three to four months before.

The breakthrough cases started in January 2021, according to the data. Protection against hospitalization was also fading, researchers discovered.

In the week ending on July 31, 2021, 63 percent of the COVID-19 hospitalizations in seniors were among the fully vaccinated, according to the documents. The same pattern of weaker protection among people who were vaccinated early was found.

Researchers calculated that the vaccine effectiveness (VE) against infection was just 33 percent while the effectiveness against hospitalization had dropped to 57 percent.

Seniors who previously had COVID-19 and recovered were more likely to avoid hospitalization, the researchers also found. Risk factors included serious underlying conditions such as obesity and being in the oldest age group, or older than 85.

“Our observational study VE findings show a very significant decrease in VE against infection and hospitalization in the Delta phase of the pandemic for individuals vaccinated with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine for those 5–6 months post vaccination vs. those 3–4 months post vaccination,” Dr. Bettina Experton, Humetrix’s president and CEO, said in a Sept. 15, 2021, email to top U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials.

Humetrix also found that among the beneficiaries, there had been 133,000 cases, 27,000 hospitalizations, and 8,300 intensive care admissions among the fully vaccinated since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Experton disclosed that Humetrix shared the data with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in August 2021.

Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health at the time, wrote in a separate email obtained through FOIA that the results of the study provided “pretty compelling evidence that VE is falling 5–6 months post vaccination for both infection and hospitalization for those over 65.”

He added, “Even for those 3–4 months out there is a trend toward worsening VE.”

The CDC, FDA, and National Institutes of Health did not share the data with the public as they considered whether to clear and recommend COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

The CDC held a meeting with its vaccine advisers on Aug. 30, 2021. During the meeting, CDC officials went over emerging data on waning vaccine effectiveness. But the military study was not included.

The FDA held a similar meeting on Sept. 17, 2021. The CDC participated. The Humetrix analysis was also not presented during that meeting.

Both agencies have aggressively promoted COVID-19 vaccines throughout the pandemic, including hyping them as strongly protective against severe disease even after their own data have suggested that is not the case.

The CDC did present data from COVID-NET, one of its systems, that showed effectiveness against COVID-19-associated hospitalization was falling among the elderly since the emergence of the Delta variant but that data still showed 80 percent effectiveness.

The presentation also included data from outside researchers and Israel that estimated the protection during the Delta era against infection ranged from 39 percent to 84 percent and that the effectiveness against hospitalization ranged from 75 to 95 percent.

The FDA ended up clearing a Pfizer booster for many Americans. The CDC advised most people to receive it. The agencies later expanded booster clearance and recommendations to virtually all Americans aged 5 and older, with Moderna’s shot as another option. Authorities have since replaced the old shots due to their lack of durability, and are preparing to roll out another slate of shots this fall.

Show less

No Evidence FDA + CDC Hid Data On Failing COVID-19 Vaccines!

In this article, I will go through some of their claims, and show you what the facts really are!

Fact #1 : Humetrix Study Was Commissioned By US DOD

First, let’s start by pointing out that the Humetrix study in question was commissioned by JAIC – the US Department of Defense Joint Artificial Intelligence Center. This was stated explicitly in an email by Humetrix President and CEO, Bettina Experton, to the FDA:

This study has been conducted by my company under contract with the DoD JAIC (Joint Artificial Intelligence Center) since March 2020, when we were t asked to analyze Medicare claim data to monitor, map and conduct Covid-19 predictive analytics for the military.

What this means is – the data belonged to the US Department of Defense, not Humetrix, the FDA, or the CDC.

Fact #2 : Humetrix Published Study Results In December 2022

It seems odd to accuse the US FDA and CDC of hiding data from the Humetrix study, when Humetrix publicly published its results in the open-access journal, Biology in December 2022.

The study is called “Enhanced Vaccine Effectiveness during the Delta Phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Medicare Population Supports a Multilayered Prevention Approach“.

Fact #3 : No Evidence CDC / FDA Hid Humetrix Study

There is no evidence that the FDA or CDC hid the Humetrix study or its data. The Epoch Times article did not offer any evidence, beyond pointing out that the Humetrix analysis was “not presented” during a meeting to approve the booster dose.

Ironically, the same article pointed out that the CDC presented data from its COVID-NET data that showed falling vaccine effectiveness in the elderly against the Delta variant. So why should the CDC / FDA try to “hide” the Humetrix data?

Is it not possible that the CDC preferred to rely on its own data? Or perhaps, the CDC decided that the COVID-NET data was compelling enough, it did not need to supplement with the similar data from the Humetrix study?

Fact #4 : Vaccines Were Not Meant To Prevent Infection

While many anti-vaccine activists harp on the fact that COVID-19 vaccines fail to prevent transmission or breakthrough infections, the truth is – the vaccines were designed to prevent severe disease and deaths from COVID-19.

It would be nice if they can significantly block transmission, or breakthrough infections, but those were never the endpoints in any COVID-19 vaccine trial. If you look back at the vaccine trial results, they were only looking at protection against “symptomatic infection“, “severe disease“, and “death“.

COVID-19 Vaccine	Protection Against
COVID-19 Vaccine	Symptomatic Infection	Severe Disease	Death
Pfizer Comirnaty	95.0%	100%	100%
Gamaleya Sputnik V	91.6%	100%	100%
Moderna mRNA-1273	94.1%	100%	100%
AstraZeneca AZD1222	62% ~ 90%	100%	100%
Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV	79% ~ 86%	90%	100%
Sinovac Biotech	50.65%	83.7%	100%
J&J Janssen COVID-19	66.0%	85%	100%
CanSino Biologics	65.7%	90.98%	100%

Therefore, their constant harping of the “inability” or “failure” of COVID-19 vaccines to block transmission, or completely prevent infections, is a red herring. That was never the goal of these vaccines.

Even if you are fully-vaccinated, you can continue to get breakthrough infections, and that’s fine. The key thing is vaccines help to prevent severe disease and death COVID-19 infections.

Fact #5 : Humetrix Study Looked At Delta Variant

It is also important to note that the Humerix study looked at the Delta variant, as its title stated clearly – Effectiveness of mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines Against the Delta Variant Among 6M Medicare Beneficiaries 65 Years and Older.

The original COVID-19 vaccines were designed to target the original (ancestral) SARS-CoVo-2 virus. The Delta variant did not exist at that time.

The Humerix study did not address or disparage the effectiveness of the vaccines against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus that they were originally meant to target. It was looking to see if the original mRNA vaccine could also protect against the Delta variant.

Fact #5 : Reduced Protection vs. Delta Variant Spurs Need For Booster Dose

The Humerix study, at that time, was presented to the FDA for its use in the consideration whether to approve the booster dose looked at the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines against the new (at that time) Delta variant.

Because it showed reduced vaccine effectiveness against infections and hospitalisations, that would actually support the approval of a booster dose to boost protection against COVID-19.

If the Humetrix study actually showed the original mRNA vaccines’ strong protection against the Delta variant, the FDA and/or CDC might not feel the need to approve or support a booster dose at that time.

This was actually mentioned in the Executive Summary of the Humetrix presentation on Page 2:

Salus breakthrough hospitalization risk model can be applied to prioritize the over 65 population for booster vaccine

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

Don’t forget to protect yourself, and your family, by vaccinating against COVID-19!

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Fact Check | Health | Tech ARP

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Are COVID-19 Vaccines Still One Giant Experiment?!

Leave a reply

Are COVID-19 vaccines still one giant experiment?! Take a look at the viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : COVID-19 Vaccines Are Still One Giant Experiment!

Anti-vaccination activists are excitedly sharing screenshots of an article by Katherine J. Wu from The Atlantic magazine, claiming that it proves that COVID-19 vaccines are still “one giant experiment”!

💥BREAKING: The Atlantic recognizes reality. WOW. Hell must have frozen over. “The Atlantic” published this by a staff writer.

“Covid shots are still one giant experiment”

We’re finally allowed to call the experiment an experiment. We were called so nasty names for two years for sharing this truth. It’s now mainstream.

“COVID Shots Are Still One Giant Experiment”

Injecting billions of people with a new technology never before administered to humans with zero long term safety data is exactly a GIANT EXPERIMENT!!

Truth : COVID-19 Vaccines Are Not Still One Giant Experiment!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created and propagated by anti-vaccination activists, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : Claims Are Based On Article From The Atlantic

First, let me provide some context on what’s going on.

These claims are based on a recent article (behind a paywall) by Katherine J. Wu, writing for The Atlantic magazine, in which she wrote about efforts to decide on this year’s COVID-19 vaccination strategy.

Unfortunately, the article is long and behind a paywall, so you cannot read it for yourself, unless you subscribe to The Atlantic magazine. But in this fact check article, I will share with you the pertinent parts of the article to show you why the claims are false.

Fact #2 : The Atlantic Changed Its Title Twice!

Anti-vaccination activists are sharing screenshots of the article, but not the actual link to the article itself because its title was changed not once, but twice!

According to archive.today, the original title on 26 May 2023 was uncontroversial – “What Should Go Into This Year’s COVID Vaccine?”

But that innocuous title probably didn’t gain much traction, so about 1.5 hours later, the title was changed to the controversial “COVID Shots Are Still One Giant Experiment“. That was when the article finally went viral.

When the controversy over its title blew up on social media, The Atlantic changed the article’s title six hours later to “Fall’s COVID Shots May Be Different in One Key Way“.

Fact #3 : Article Did Not Mention Experiment Even Once!

I should point out that while the article was written by Katherine J. Wu, the title was likely decided by the editor(s) at The Atlantic. That’s probably why the title was changed to the controversial “COVID Shots Are Still One Giant Experiment” even though the word “experiment” or “experimental” was never mentioned, not even once in her entire article.

One of the consideration editors have when creating a title is whether it is attractive and can gain traction… and whether it can improve the SEO of the article.

It is likely the editor(s) at The Atlantic decided to “amp up” the title to improve its SEO, and/or make it more clickbaity / share-worthy, so it would go viral. If that was the reason for the first title change, then the editor(s) sure did a great job!

Fact #4 : Article Never Said COVID-19 Vaccines Are Experimental

If you read the entirety of Katherine J. Wu’s article, you will realise that it never once said or even suggested that COVID-19 vaccines are still experimental.

Her article was about work being done to create the next COVID-19 vaccine formula that the US FDA is scheduled to decide next month. Would it continue with the current bivalent vaccine strategy targeting the ancestral and Omicron variants, or should it switch to targeting XBB.1 variant alone?

This fall, millions of Americans might be lining up for yet another kind of COVID vaccine: their first-ever dose that lacks the strain that ignited the pandemic more than three and a half years ago. Unlike the current, bivalent vaccine, which guards against two variants at once, the next one could, like the first version of the shot, have only one main ingredient—the spike protein of the XBB.1 lineage of the Omicron variant, the globe’s current dominant clade.

That plan isn’t yet set. The FDA still has to convene a panel of experts, then is expected to make a final call on autumn’s recipe next month. But several experts told me they hope the agency follows the recent recommendation of a World Health Organization advisory group and focuses the next vaccine only on the strains now circulating.

The switch in strategy—from two variants to one, from original SARS-CoV-2 plus Omicron to XBB.1 alone—would be momentous but wise, experts told me, reflecting the world’s updated understanding of the virus’s evolution and the immune system’s quirks

To be clear – COVID-19 vaccines underwent and passed large trials before they received their Emergency Use Authorisations, and many subsequently received full approval after months of monitoring. Those vaccine cease to be experimental once they receive either an EUA or a full approval.

Fact #5 : Scientists Need To Predict Virus Evolution

The SARS-CoV-2 virus evolves rapidly, with every infection presenting an opportunity for it to evolve further into new variants.

While mRNA technology has helped to speed up vaccine development, it still takes time to develop improved vaccines to tackle these new variants. So scientists need to predict the virus’ evolution, to decide on the next vaccine.

Will SARS-CoV-2 evolution continue mainly through the XBB.1 variant, or will a new Alpha or Delta variant gain supremacy? That is the question scientists need to answer in order to develop the next COVID-19 vaccine.

If the next vaccine is based on the XBB.1 variant, it will offer good protection even against subsequent sub variant of XBB.1. But if a new Delta sub-variant suddenly becomes far more common, then the XBB.1 optimised vaccine may not offer quite as much protection.

Fact #6 : Article Says Vaccines Are Essential

What anti-vaccination activists notably do not point out is that the article specifically pointed out that “it’s long been clear that vaccines are essential for preventing severe disease and death“, and that regular boosting is probably necessary to maintain their effectiveness.

By now, it’s long been clear that vaccines are essential for preventing severe disease and death, and that some cadence of boosting is probably necessary to keep the shots’ effectiveness high.

The article does not, ever, claim that COVID-19 vaccines are “still one giant experiment”. Instead, it says that these vaccines are essential, and we will need some regular boosting to maintain its effectiveness against new variants.

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

Don’t forget to protect yourself, and your family, by vaccinating against COVID-19!

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

Recommended Reading

Go Back To > Fact Check | Science | Tech ARP

Support Tech ARP!

Please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or donating to our fund. Thank you!

Is Omicron XBB 5X More Virulent Than Delta Variant?!

Leave a reply

Is the Omicron XBB variant 5X more virulent than the Delta variant of the COVID-19 coronavirus?!

Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

Claim : Omicron XBB Is 5X More Virulent Than Delta Variant!

This message has gone viral on WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook particularly in India, claiming that the Omicron XBB variant is 5X more virulent than the Delta variant of the COVID-19 coronavirus!

Note : It’s rather long, so please feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

XBB variant

Let’s pay attention to the following information:

Everyone is advised to wear a mask because the new variant of the COVID-Omicron XBB coronavirus is different, deadly and not easy to detect correctly.

The symptoms of the new virus COVID-Omicron XBB are the following:

1. There is no cough.
2. There is no fever.

There will only be a limited number of these others:

3. Joint pain.
4. Headache.
5. Pain in the neck.
6. Upper back pain.
7. Pneumonia.
8. There is usually no appetite.

COVID-Omicron XBB is 5 times more virulent than the Delta variant and has a higher mortality rate than it.

It takes less time for the condition to reach extreme severity and sometimes there are no obvious symptoms.

Let’s be more careful!

This strain of the virus is not found in the nasopharyngeal region and directly affects the lungs for a relatively short period of time.

Several patients diagnosed with Covid-Omicron XBB were classified as febrile and pain free, but x-rays showed mild chest pneumonia.

Nasal swab tests are often negative for Covid-Omicron XBB, and cases of false negative nasopharyngeal tests are increasing.

This means that the virus can spread in the community and directly infect the lungs, causing viral pneumonia, which in turn causes acute respiratory distress.

This explains why the Covid-Omicron XBB has become something very contagious, highly virulent and lethal.
Caution, avoid crowded places, keep a distance of 1.5 m even in open spaces, wear a double-layer mask, wear a suitable mask, wash hands frequently, even if everyone is asymptomatic (no coughing or sneezing).

This wave of Covid-Omicron XBB is deadlier than the first wave of Covid-19. So we have to be very careful and take several reinforced precautions against the coronavirus.Maintain vigilant communication with your friends and family.

Do not keep this information to yourself, share it with other family members and friends.

Show less

Truth : Omicron XBB Variant Advice From Singapore Is Fake News!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS circulating on WhatsApp and social media, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : XBB Is An Omicron Subvariant

First, let me just clarify a common misconception. XBB is technically not a COVID-19 variant. It is a subvariant of the Omicron variant.

As per WHO definition, XBB is a recombinant subvariant of BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 sublineages of the Omicron variant. In other words – XBB is a mix of the BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75 subvariants of Omicron.

Fact #2 : Omicron XBB Is Detected Like Any Other COVID-19 Variant

The viral message falsely claims that XBB is not easily detected.

XBB is nothing more than a subvariant of Omicron. It is just as easily detected by the same PCR or RTK tests as the original Omicron variant.

Fact #3 : Omicron XBB Symptoms Similar To Other Omicron Variants

The viral message falsely claims that XBB infections do not present with cough or fever.

XBB is just one of the many Omicron subvariants that include BA.5, BA.2.75, BJ.1, and BA.4.6. While they have changes to their spike protein, they have similar symptoms to the Omicron variant.

They are just different versions of the Omicron variant, and present with common symptoms like cough, fever, sore throat, cold, body aches.

Fact #4 : Omicron XBB Is Not 5X More Virulent Than Delta Variant

The viral message falsely claims that XBB is 5X more virulent than the Delta variant.

On 27 October 2022, the WHO Technical Advisory Group on SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution (TAG-VE) reported that there is no “substantial differences in disease severity for XBB infections”.

In other words – XBB infections produce similarly mild disease to Omicron. That is not surprising, because XBB is after all an Omicron subvariant.

The Delta variant (B.1.617.2), which caused havoc in mid 2021, causes more severe disease than any other COVID-19 variants, particularly in people who were not vaccinated.

An April 2022 study published in Nature showed that Omicron variant infections had 2X to 5X fewer fatalities than Delta variant infections.

Fact #5 : Omicron XBB Does Not Skip The Nasopharynx