August 18, 2023
Over the past few days, scientists throughout the world have
increasingly sounded the alarm over the emergence of a new variant of
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Identified as BA.2.86 and given the
nickname “Pirola,” the variant has 35 mutations on the spike protein that
distinguish it from Omicron XBB.1.5, the most recent variant that was dominant
globally and for which the next iteration of vaccines have been designed.
After first being detected in Israel on Sunday, Pirola was
sequenced in Denmark and then the United States, with England announcing a case
on Friday. The detection of Pirola in four countries on three continents
indicates that it is a fit variant that has likely begun spreading globally
undetected for some time.
Commenting on the evident community spread in different parts of
Denmark, molecular virologist Dr. Marc Johnson tweeted Friday, “The three
Denmark cases were from different parts of the country and had no known contact
with one another. This is looking more and more like an avalanche.”
The genomic difference between Pirola and XBB.1.5 is comparable to
that between the first Omicron variant and the original strain of the virus.
The large number of mutations on the spike protein first enabled Omicron to
circumvent antibodies generated by the vaccines and prior infections, causing
the largest global wave of infections, including breakthrough and reinfections,
at any point in the pandemic.
Despite a relentless propaganda campaign falsely claiming that
Omicron was “mild,” it caused millions of deaths globally and likely the
largest wave of Long COVID of the entire pandemic. Scientists are warning that
Pirola could potentially cause a similar “Omicron-type” event, in which
billions of people globally become infected or reinfected with COVID-19.
Whether or not Pirola is more likely to hospitalize or kill patients will not
be known for weeks or months, as these are lagging indicators.
While independent scientists are fighting to educate the public on
the emergence of the Pirola variant, capitalist politicians throughout the
world and almost every corporate media outlet have remained criminally silent.
The growing concern about this new variant comes amid what is
already clearly a major new global wave of the pandemic, predominantly fueled
by the EG.5 variant nicknamed “Eris,” which now accounts for over 30 percent of
sequenced cases globally.
The latest wastewater data from the US released Thursday show that
over the past eight weeks, the level of viral transmission has increased by 227
percent nationally, or more than tripling. At present, an estimated nearly
610,000 Americans are being infected each day, and 6 million are currently sick
with COVID-19, near the peak levels reached during the Delta wave in 2021. This
surge is largely being driven by Eris, which became dominant last week and now
accounts for 20.6 percent of sequenced cases.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are also quickly rising throughout the
world. Across the US, hospitalizations rose 60 percent between July 8 and
August 5, the most recent date for which data are available. In recent weeks,
hospitalizations and intensive care unit (ICU) admissions have more than
doubled in New York, often a bellwether for the rest of the country.
Significant surges are also taking place in South Korea, Japan,
Italy, the UK, Spain and other countries. There are already concerns that China
is beginning a third wave of the pandemic after lifting its Zero-COVID
elimination strategy last winter, which led to two catastrophic pandemic waves
that likely killed upwards of 3 million people.
As summer and winter breaks end throughout the world, hundreds of
millions of children are returning to schools globally at present. This will
only add fuel to an already raging fire, as schools have been known throughout
the pandemic to be key centers of viral transmission.
The ongoing global wave of mass infection and the dangers of this
being compounded by the Pirola variant take place just three months after the
World Health Organization (WHO) and the Biden administration ended their
COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) declarations in early May. These
unscientific decisions prompted the total collapse of already ruined pandemic
surveillance systems globally.
Testing, contact tracing and the reporting of cases are now
nonexistent throughout much of the world. Genomic surveillance, which is
necessary to track the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and the global spread of new
variants like Eris and Pirola, has drastically declined over the past year, in
particular after the scrapping of the PHEs.
But perhaps the most significant result of these regressive policy
decisions, which have been accompanied by an unrelenting propaganda campaign in
the corporate media, is that the vast majority of the world’s population has
been misled into believing that the pandemic is over. Billions of people are
now totally unprepared for the next stage of the pandemic, which is quickly
sweeping over global society.
On Thursday, tailing the independent citizen scientists who
discovered Pirola, the WHO and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC) both announced that they are tracking the spread of the new variant.
These announcements were largely aimed at damage control, as both institutions
stand thoroughly discredited for their role in covering up the ongoing dangers
of the pandemic.
It is not yet known whether Pirola will take off globally or if it
is more likely to cause severe disease and death, but these outcomes are
entirely possible. In fact, such dangers are only increasing as the virus is
allowed to spread freely and mutate in billions of hosts.
The capitalist response to the COVID-19 pandemic has amounted to an
unending stream of lies, misinformation and homicidal policies designed to
maximize the production of profits and subject the population to perpetual
waves of infection, death and debilitation with Long COVID.
While unlimited resources are provided to the imperialist war
machines and bank bailouts, a pittance is allocated to scientific research into
next-generation COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics and renovating infrastructure
to prevent airborne transmission. High quality masks, accurate tests,
treatments and now even vaccines are all unaffordable or inaccessible to
billions of people internationally.
The financial oligarchy that runs society is thoroughly hostile to
the social interests and well-being of the great mass of the population. As
capitalism descends into the barbarism of world war, the fascist mantra of
“survival of the fittest” once again reverberates through the halls of power.
The present experience, in which masses of people on every
continent are suffering major waves of the pandemic while their governments and
media do nothing but cover it up, reveals the underlying social antagonism of
modern society—that between the capitalist class and the working class.
A central task facing the revolutionary socialist movement is to
imbue the working class with an understanding of this conflict and the
political program necessary to stop the pandemic, as well as war, fascism,
climate change and all the great social problems arising from the capitalist
system.
Fundamentally, the pandemic is a social and political crisis which
can only be resolved through mass, unified struggle of the international
working class, in coordination with principled scientists in every country.
From the beginning, the World Socialist Web Site and the International
Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI) have clearly explained this
imperative and provided leadership in this struggle. Now, as new and
potentially more dangerous variants sweep the globe, it is evermore necessary to
deepen this fight on a world scale.
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