Omicron is outrunning vaccines

Transcript

ERICA: Good morning! Welcome to Axios Today! It’s Thursday, June 2nd. I’m Erica Pandey, in for Niala Boodhoo. Here’s what you need to know today: the golden age of remote work is ending. Plus: why it’s more important than ever to get enough Vitamin D. But first, today’s One Big Thing: how to stay safe as Omicron outruns vaccines.

ERICA: Summer is unofficially here with people across the country going out, traveling and dropping masks more than in months past. But case numbers over Memorial day weekend were almost six times higher than at the same time last year. And the COVID vaccines aren't keeping up with the new variants that just keep coming. So where does that leave us for the next few months? Dr. Celine Gounder is back with us. She's the Editor-at-Large for public health at Kaiser Health News. Hi, Dr. Gounder.

CELINE GOUNDER: It's great to be here.

ERICA: So first, should people be less concerned about these strains that are coming out? You hear that anecdotally, but you know what's your medical opinion on that?

CELINE: I think a lot of people have been counting on this so-called immunity wall from the Omicron surge over the winter. The issue is that the subvariants that are currently circulating are rather different from what was circulating over the winter. An infection to the original omicron variant will not provide good protection against the currently circulating subvariants of Omicron known as BA.2.

ERICA: How are vaccines doing against these newest variants?

CELINE: There is a mismatch between the vaccines that we currently have and the circulating variants, the immune response that you get to the vaccines or to prior infection don't protect as well against the Omicron subvariants. So while there may still be protection against severe COVID, there's still a pretty significant risk of infection even if you've been fully vaccinated.

ERICA: But are we going to develop wholly new vaccines to deal with these new strains?

CELINE: Well, there are some updates planned for the fall and very likely the vaccines that will be administered starting in the fall will be tailored to the original Omicron variant. The issue is that we already have seen new Omicron subvariants emerge. We have more on the way, BA.4 and BA.5, which were first picked up in South Africa.

They are currently at a pretty low level here in the United States, but we have enough data to suggest that they probably will outpace even the BA.2 that is currently circulating. And with each of these new subvariants, there's greater and greater immune evasion and greater and greater mismatch with our current vaccines. So it is going to be a challenge to figure out how can we stay better matched? How can we keep pace with the virus as it's mutating? And one of those technologies, really the holy grail here would be what we call a universal coronavirus vaccine or more technically pan sarbecovirus vaccine, which would be effective against not just the current variants, but future variants as well.

ERICA: It seems like we're all getting so much more relaxed. I mean, mask mandates are gone in so many places. You're seeing people maskless on transportation as well. What can and should people be doing to protect themselves right now?

CELINE: Well, just because you don't have to wear a mask, doesn't mean you shouldn't and can't wear a mask. There's no mandate that you have to use toilet paper, but most of us do. You know, I think this is one of those situations where you may not have the government forcing you to take action, but for your own personal protection, for the protection of those around you, these tools are still at your disposal. And that includes tools like masking, that also includes tools like testing. Testing before you're around other people, especially more vulnerable people. Say, if you're going to go visit your grandmother in the nursing home, it would certainly make sense to test before making that visit to make sure that you're not going to pose a risk to her.

ERICA: Before I let you go, I want to zoom out a little bit. We've learned so much about this virus in the last two years. What are some of the big questions though that are still unknown that could impact the way we respond to it?

CELINE: It's very difficult to forecast how the SARS-CoV-2 virus will mutate over the coming months to years, how quickly it will mutate, how exactly it will mutate, what that will mean for our vaccines and our drugs. And so that really does create a lot of uncertainty about how the pandemic will evolve and hopefully eventually end. We are not at the end of the COVID pandemic. We still have a ways to go before we get to a steady state where there's a predictable amount of transmission. Right now, we're still in a pandemic because you're still seeing these peaks and troughs that are not predictable. Hopefully we get to a point where you don't see these big surges at certain times of year.

ERICA: Dr. Celine Gounder is the Editor-at-Large for public health at Kaiser Health News. Thanks for your time.

CELINE: My pleasure.

ERICA: In a moment: CEOs are backing away from remote work.

ERICA: Welcome back to Axios Today. I'm Erica Pandey in for Niala Boodhoo. Almost every time a CEO has made a big workplace announcement these last two years, it's been to say, “we're going fully remote” or “we're hybrid.” So Elon Musk shocked this week when he said Tesla employees have to come back full time or they can leave. Is this the start of a new anti-remote movement? And will white collar workers who by and large like remote work and flexibility, accept it? Axios business reporter Hope King is here to break it down. Hey, Hope.

HOPE: Hey Erica.

ERICA: So Hope we know how Elon Musk feels. Is this in line with other CEOs and how they feel about remote work?

HOPE: I think it is. I think if you look at some of the comments from some of the biggest banks like JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, you know, those CEOs like Jamie Dimon and David Solomon have been talking about the need for workers to come back and how much they want workers to come back. If you have someone like Elon Musk, who is in charge of this big company, Tesla, very influential in many ways, you might have other companies who have been waiting for other big companies like Tesla to make decisions, to then follow suit.

ERICA: We know there's been a split between CEOs C-suite and you know, rank and file employees when it comes to remote work. But are workers are starting to change their minds about remote work. Who's staying home still and who wants to be in?

HOPE: If you look at who can stay home and are staying home, it's likely workers who have an advanced degree so higher than a bachelor's degree. Um, that's according to government data. On the other hand, workers who might have less than a high school diploma, they are among the least likely to be able to be remote. When you look at Elon Musk's memos, he even mentioned that, you know, he says that everyone is required to work 40 hours minimum in the office per week. And that is less than what we ask of our factory workers. So I do think that's an important distinction.

ERICA: Right now, there are 11.4 million open jobs and the workers really have the power. So most companies are leaning into this hybrid work and flexibility because they want to attract as much talent as they can. Is that eventually going to change?

HOPE: So I do think that ultimately the tables will eventually turn back to favor our employers, but for the moment, as you mentioned, the workers still have the power, But again, when you have someone like Elon Musk out there talking about his own policies that might give more companies the leeway to do the same. And if more companies are then enforcing the same policies, workers will ultimately have fewer choices because no matter where they go they will have to work from the office. And I think that's where this gets very interesting. When you have again, an Elon Musk out there, trashing working from home.

ERICA: Hope King co-writes the daily Closer newsletter. Thanks, Hope.

HOPE: Thanks, Erica.

ERICA: We started the show talking about omicron – and we’ll leave you today with one more note about staying safe as Covid surges: An unexpected way to protect yourself may be to soak up the sun. We’ve all heard about how missing out on vitamin D weakens our bones and our teeth, but recent research has also linked vitamin D deficiency to risk of Covid. In a 2020 UChicago study, researchers found that patients who were vitamin D deficient were twice as likely to test positive for Covid as those with enough of the sun’s vitamin.

The study was careful to note that this is just an observation for now. We don’t know for sure whether taking vitamin D reduces your risk of getting Covid. But we do know that it comes with big benefits for your bones, teeth and immune system. You need need 15-20 minutes of direct sunlight without sunscreen to get enough vitamin D from the sun. If that’s not possible or doesn’t feel safe consider multivitamins to supplement the Vitamin D you’re able to get from the sun’s rays.

That’s all for today – I’m Erica Pandey, in for Niala Boodhoo - thanks for listening - stay safe and we’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.