"The HighWire with Del Bigtree" host Del Bigtree said the recent rise in cases of the new Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) omicron subvariants is something to watch out for and possibly be worried about.
Bigtree, the producer of the controversial documentary film "Vaxxed", mentioned that the amount of SARS CoV-2 infections in the United States was almost six times higher than the previous Memorial Day weekend.
"Luckily omicron is mild, but we are all watching whether it will remain mild as it continues to mutate. And so some of the headlines in America are alarming; there appears to be some new variants on the way," Bigtree said.
The CEO of Informed Consent Action Network noted that omicron now has Ba.4 and Ba.5 subvariants. The subvariants are responsible for 13 percent of the total SARS-CoV-2 cases in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website.
What caught Bigtree's attention about the matter was the Substack article of independent journalist Igor Chudov titled "Ba.5 is a Variant for Boosted People. South Africa vs Portugal: Same Variant, Opposite Outcomes."
Bigtree invited Chudov to appear in his show.
Chudov said Ba.5 predominated in Portugal and South Africa, but the outcomes were different. The journalist said he was struck by how different the number of deaths and cases in both countries. He pointed out that the wave of Ba.5 in South Africa has a very minor impact in terms of deaths. But in Portugal, there was a huge wave of cases followed by a large wave of deaths. (Related: South African health minister says omicron hospitalizations are "relatively low" and nothing to worry about)
Full vaccinated Portugal suffers more from omicron subvariant
Both countries have the Ba.5 wave, but Portugal has six times more deaths. One plausible explanation for this, according to Chudov, is because Portugal has a very high vaccination rate. "Unfortunately it doesn't help," he said.
Bigtree noted that South Africa has low vaccination rate while Portugal is fully vaccinated. The fact that the latter is now having a rise in deaths is quite alarming, he said.
Chudov said the reason Ba.5 is so much worse in Portugal is because the subvariant mostly infects the vaccinated. He added that most Portuguese people already had COVID and the major wave happening is reinfection-driven. The journalist and researcher cited that Ba.5 is good at reinfecting both the vaccinated and the boosted.
Bigtree mentioned the news that the omicron subvariants have evolved and that people may start to see disease enhancement caused by COVID-19 vaccines. He also mentioned that Belgian virologist Geert Vanden Bossche believes vaccination is going to pressure the COVID-19 virus to mutate into a space where it becomes more deadly and infectious for the vaccinated.
In a May 18 interview with Australian journalist Maria Zeee, Vanden Bossche said: "In the next two months, I expect an explosion [of this virulent variant] in one of these highly vaccinated countries. And then it will go very, very fast."
Vanden Bossche is a former senior officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and senior program manager for the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.
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This video is from the The HighWire with Del Bigtree channel on Brighteon.com.
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