Vaccines Driving Evolution of XBB Omicron Is An Interesting But Incomplete Hypothesis
Let’s evaluate both sides of the argument and see.
Earlier this year, an opinion article in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) argued that the Covid-19 vaccines might have been driving the evolution of XBB, the latest successful Omicron subvariant. Is there any truth in this hypothesis, though? Let’s evaluate both sides of the argument and see.
This hypothesis is not new, though. Similar concerns were raised before, usually by the anti-vaccine community. I wrote about this hypothesis back in August 2021. Some of my arguments back then are still relevant, which I’ll re-use in this article.
The WSJ opinion
The author, Allysia Finley, journalist and member of the WSJ editorial board, began by citing a study that analyzed the evolution of Omicron, which arrived at the conclusion that immune imprinting from the vaccines might have contributed to XBB evolution.
The study, published in Nature, analyzed the immune evasion abilities and mutational profiles of Omicron variants and subvariants. Among the tested variants, XBB and BQ1.1 exhibited the strongest resistance to monoclonal antibodies and antibodies from vaccinated individuals, while retaining their cell binding…
