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COVID 2: The Omicron Enigma

By Matthew Betley

 

While that title sounds like a Robert Ludlum novel, it’s actually the confusion I encountered just before and after I recovered last week from my second round of COVID. My first fight with delta – which I wrote about here 3 months ago – was much more serious, affecting my lungs and requiring the monoclonal antibody infusion, when Regeneron still worked for COVID. Omicron, on the other hand, was a super-mild cold that lasted 3 days. But the real kicker was how little doctors, pharmacists, and other medical professionals understood about the booster, immunity, and testing when it comes to the latest, raging, contagious variant.

When I first recovered from delta (with issues that I’m still dealing with everyday thanks to lung damage from Iraq from toxic exposure to burn pits), I read multiple medical journals. From what I gathered, I had natural immunity for 9 to 15 months, with conservative estimates at 6 months. I thought the same thing applied to my kids, who contracted delta from me. And while I’d been vaccinated last March with Moderna, I couldn’t get the booster until 90 days after the monoclonal antibody infusion. And then omicron hit.

I read more medical journals and studies that indicated hybrid immunity from both natural infection and a vaccine or booster was the best protection against omicron. One of my doctors at Hopkins thought I should get the booster after the 90 days, while another of my doctors thought I should be fine for up to 6 months. I’d also had my blood work done recently, and my antibody level exceeded 2500 – the maximum limit measurable – on the Roche test, which any Labcorp will do upon request. After weighing my choices, I – not anyone else – made the decision to get the Moderna booster. The pharmacist who administered it said, “It can’t hurt, but no one really knows anything about this variant,” and as a Marine, I’m all about the ready-fire-aim philosophy.

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