Ready For More? New COVID Variant Sets Off Yet Another Wave Of Panic

Ah, it's been too long between panics. 

The story of COVID is one of panics. The initial panic, based on misinformation from the World Health Organization and disinformation from China. The WHO claimed that 3.4% of those who tested positive would die. The lockdown panic, spurred on by China posting videos of people supposedly falling down dead in the street from COVID. 

Panic over masks and mask mandates, teachers throwing protests in Florida acting like opening schools was a death sentence. Panic over sporting events, with critics going after Major League Baseball for playing the 2020 World Series. As well as certain college football conferences for deciding to play the 2020 fall season. 

Then the panic over variants started, with "experts" using those variants as an excuse for their preferred policies not working, or politicians using them as an excuse to enact more mandates, or return to restrictions that had already failed in previous periods. Then, when those restrictions failed, they doubled and tripled down, always citing more panic as the explanation.

RELATED: New Study Shows Negative COVID Vaccine Efficacy For Kids, Elevated Risk Of Myocarditis

Well, get ready, because the variant panic is ready to make its triumphant return. Yes, even in 2026.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to Former President Biden, adjusts his mask in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Nov. 29, 2021. (Photographer: Oliver Contreras/Pool/Sipa USA)

New COVID Variant Prompts CDC Warning

A Mobility and Mortality Weekly Report, one of the CDC's publications, was released last week, on a new COVID variant called BA.3.2, which is reportedly rapidly spreading throughout the globe. At least 23 countries have reported finding the variant thus far, through mid-February, and the CDC's Traveler-Based Genomic Surveillance program has found a number of major changes. 

Per the Surveillance program, there have been 70 to 75 changes detected in the "gene sequence of its spike protein." Most importantly, this variant has demonstrated "immune escape characteristics." Those characteristics could allow this specific variant to potentially circumvent natural immunity. 

"BA.3.2 represents a new lineage of SARS-CoV-2, genetically distinct from the JN.1 lineages (including LP.8.1 and XFG) that have circulated in the United States since January 2024," the report states. 

And it may be significantly more widespread than previously realized, considering many countries lack the research, detection, and surveillance resources to track new variants. Already, BA.3.2 has created "sublineages," similar to other prior variants like Omicron, which had many named subvariants.

"Phylogenetic analyses have identified the emergence of two BA.3.2 sublineages (BA.3.2.1 and BA.3.2.2), indicating ongoing viral evolution," the report authors explained. They also recommended further ongoing genomic surveillance, considering the potential of lessened immunity.

Thankfully, there's a new regime in charge of public health at the federal level. The director of the National Institutes of Health and acting CDC Director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, is far too smart and educated to panic over new variants. Any new permanent CDC head will hopefully be similarly immune to the panic of years past. 

But where this new variant designation could be potentially harmful is in local jurisdictions. Already, hospital systems in places like California enforce annual mask mandates, forcing visitors and staff to wear masks throughout the late fall and winter period, some even extending into spring. Giving these fanatical extremists further excuse to mandate masks is dangerous and frustrating. 

Not to mention the many members of the public who will be influenced by this news to continue masking, indefinitely. That's an individual decision, sure, but many children are forced by their parents to wear masks. Those kids could be harmed, because parents have returned to unnecessary panic. 

Beyond the panic, this new variant once again highlights how incompetent experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci were during the pandemic period. They acted like a two-dose COVID series would make individuals "fully vaccinated." They acted as though vaccine-inferred immunity would be more protective than immunity resulting from an infection. Both of those assertions were proven wrong. Even then, there was the suggestion that a "booster dose" would top up protection. 

That turned into an endless annual booster, which fewer and fewer people take each year. But all of this was predictable, the inevitable outcome of a highly transmissible respiratory virus that will continually evolve and change. Which is why the panic over variants has always been absurd, and continues to be.

In fact, Robert H. Hopkins, Jr., the medical director of the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, was ready to go with the fearmongering message: "The number of mutations makes it less likely that the current vaccines will be as highly effective against the variant," Hopkins said, though he did admit we "need more data" to be sure. He added that although there is some uncertainty, "It is possible we will see Cicada drive a summer COVID surge."

Perfection. Like 2020, 2021 and 2022 all over again.