STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- Rapid mutation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was expected and predicted, as vaccinating against any highly mutable virus, such as the coronavirus, pressures the virus to adapt. Omicron initially arose in “fully vaccinated” patients, raising suspicions that the mass vaccination campaign itself was driving the rapid mutation of the virus
- One of the latest variants, BA.5 — now believed to be the cause of nearly all COVID infections — is tied with (and may even surpass) measles in terms of its infectiousness and transmissibility. That makes it the most infectious of all SARS-CoV-2 variants, and one of the most infectious viruses known to man
- Fortunately, it’s also considerably less deadly than the original Wuhan strain
- Even if you’ve had COVID before, got the jab and all your boosters, and even if you have hybrid immunity (meaning you’ve had both past infection and the COVID jab), chances are you’ll probably catch BA.5, as it seems particularly adept at circumventing all previous defenses
- The likelihood of reinfection is the fodder fearmongerers needed to reignite calls for COVID restrictions such as lockdowns and stripping people of their inherent rights and freedoms, and, of course, more boosters
As suspected, SARS-CoV-2 continues to mutate. This was entirely expected and predicted, as vaccinating against any highly mutable virus, such as the coronavirus, pressures the virus to adapt.
One of the latest variants, BA.5 — now believed to be the cause of nearly all COVID infections — is tied with measles in terms of its infectiousness and transmissibility.1 That makes it the most infectious of all SARS-CoV-2 variants,2 and one of the most infectious viruses known to man. Fortunately, it’s also considerably less deadly than the original Wuhan strain. According to a July 5, 2022, Deadline report:3
“BA.5 was first identified in South Africa on February 26. Less than a month ago, on June 4, it only accounted for 9.6% of cases in the U.S., while predecessor BA.2.12.1 sat atop the heap at 62%.
Today, the CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] estimates the subvarient is responsible for about 54% of new cases here. That’s double BA.2.12.1, which now accounts for 27% of infections. BA.5’s rise also leaves sister subvariant BA.4 in the dust at 16%. It’s a faster ascension than that of any other variant over the course of the pandemic …
One reason BA.5 is so dominant is that it seems to be more transmissible than even BA.2.12.1 … ‘The Omicron sub-variant BA.5 is the worst version of the virus that we’ve seen,’ said Eric Topal, who is Founder and Director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, Professor of Molecular Medicine and Executive Vice-President of Scripps Research, in a substack post4 last week.
‘It takes immune escape, already extensive, to the next level, and, as a function of that, enhanced transmissibility, well beyond Omicron (BA.1) and other Omicron family variants that we’ve seen.’
In other words, BA.5 is much better at evading the immunity provided by vaccines and especially good at dodging the immunity conferred by previous infection.5“
BA.5 Circumvents Previous Defenses
Even if you’ve had COVID before, got the jab and all your boosters, and even if you have hybrid immunity (meaning you’ve had both past infection and the COVID jab), chances are you’ll probably catch BA.5, as it seems particularly adept at circumventing all previous defenses.
This immune-evading ability is likely an outgrowth of mass injection, as vaccinating a population during an acute outbreak pressures the virus to mutate more rapidly. The image below, from Topol’s Substack article,6 illustrates the genetic distance between BA.5 and previous strains.
This scenario was predicted even before the mass injection campaign began, but no one in a position to make decisions paid any attention to reason. So, here we are.
What remains to be seen is whether BA.5 will cause worse or milder infection than Omicron, which was on par with the common cold. The problem we have is that governments around the world have done a spectacularly good job of undermining good data collection and reporting, so it’s extremely difficult at this point to tease out what’s really going on in the real world.
For example, in the U.S., COVID cases are at an “all-time low,” Dr. Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and chief science officer at telehealth company eMed told CNN, July 11, 2022.7 However, that same day, NPR reported8 that BA.5 was “driving up cases and reinfections” in the U.S. So, which is it?
Europe, meanwhile, is reporting a sharp rise in both cases and hospitalizations.9 Keep in mind that “cases” simply refer to positive PCR tests, which are unreliable at best, as they cannot identify active infections, and COVID hospitalizations are frequently patients who are hospitalized for other conditions and just happen to test positive for COVID.
The only experimental study10 we have for BA.5 so far suggests the virus replicates more efficiently in human lung cell cultures than the Omicron subvariant BA.2, and infection experiments on hamsters suggest it may cause more severe infection than BA.2. That said, there’s really no evidence to suggest BA.5 is deadlier than any previous version.11
BA.5 Triggers Calls for More Boosters
Despite the fact that BA.5 was a predicted outgrowth of pressure from mass “vaccination,” governments around the world are doubling down on the failed strategy of boosters. As reported by Time magazine, July 11, 2022:12
“European regulators are urging second booster doses of COVID-19 vaccines for people over 60 years old as cases and hospitalizations are again rising sharply … Weekly case rates among people age 65 and over increased 32% in 22 of the 24 reporting countries in the week ending July 3 compared to the previous week …
The [European Medicines] agency said that, at present, there is no clear evidence to support giving a second booster to people under 60 who are not at higher risk of severe disease …
Separately, EMA Executive Director Emer Cooke said work is under way toward possible approval of vaccines adapted to counter newer variants in September.”
Two days later, July 13, 2022, the Biden administration followed suit, announcing all adults, including those under 50, will be eligible for a second booster this fall, to quell worries about waning immunity. The announcement came just one week after Biden signed a $3.2 billion agreement with Pfizer for 105 million doses that will target Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.13
BA.5 May Soon Be Old News
Interestingly, as rapidly as BA.5 took over the world, it’s already on pace to be replaced by another strain with the designation BA.2.75. In a second July 11, 2022, article, Time reported:14
“The quickly changing coronavirus has spawned yet another super contagious Omicron mutant … BA.2.75 … may be able to spread rapidly and get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection.
It’s unclear whether it could cause more serious disease than other Omicron variants, including the globally prominent BA.5 … Fueling experts’ concerns are a large number of mutations separating this new variant from Omicron predecessors.
Some of those mutations are in areas that relate to the spike protein and could allow the virus to bind onto cells more efficiently, [director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic, Matthew] Binnicker said.
Another concern is that the genetic tweaks may make it easier for the virus to skirt past antibodies — protective proteins made by the body in response to a vaccine or infection from an earlier variant.”
Reinfection Is the New Club With Which They’ll Beat Us Down
As discussed in “Omicron Variant and Vaccine Resistance,” Omicron initially arose in “fully vaccinated” patients, raising suspicions that the mass vaccination campaign itself was driving the rapid mutation of the virus.
A problem we now face is that these newer strains all appear to be able to break through both natural and artificial defenses, i.e., both natural immunity and COVID jab-related antibodies, resulting in repeat infections.15
By that I don’t mean we’re facing reinfection with a dangerous virus. That’s not the case. We’re essentially looking at endemics of something similar to the common cold; the main difference being that it’s no longer seasonal.
No, the real problem is that authorities are responding to COVID as if it was a deadly plague, and are using what are essentially cold symptoms to lock down economies and strip people of their rights and freedoms, over and over again.
That reinfection with SARS-CoV-2 is possible isn’t really a great surprise. The coronavirus, after all, is the virus responsible for the common cold, and throughout history, there have been people who have succumbed to more than one cold episode in a given year.
What’s surprising is that governments are willing to destroy economies, the education of children, mental health and the very notion of democracy over endemic cold symptoms. Unless run by clinically insane individuals and/or hypochondriacs, no government would do such a thing.
Assuming world leaders are free of such diagnoses, the fact that they’re doing these things suggests there’s an entirely different reason behind their actions. COVID just happens to be the only excuse available, so they have no choice but to milk it for all it’s worth, even if it makes no sense from a medical perspective.
When Will the Fearmongering End? When You Stop Responding
In January 2022, it looked as though the COVID-19 narrative had crumbled past the point of no return, as many health officials and world leaders finally acknowledged the COVID shots couldn’t end the pandemic and that we had to “learn to live with the virus.” Some even started speaking out against repeated boosters.
I discussed this in “Are We at the End of the Pandemic?” A major driver for that U-turn in the pandemic narrative was the emergence of the Omicron variant. While incredibly infectious, it caused only mild cold symptoms in the vast majority of people, leaving natural herd immunity in its wake.
Alas, newer variants, such as BA.5 and BA.2.75, have all developed ways to circumvent our immune defenses, including natural immunity, and this unfortunate and largely manmade circumstance now provides the fearmongerers with fresh fodder.
So, at this point, it seems the pandemic will remain a key justification for a “Great Reset” of societal norms, medicine, finance, transportation, food and the rest. In my estimation, the only way to eliminate this “Trojan Horse” justification once and for all is for the people of the world to cease fearing COVID.
As long as the fear of infection persists, it will be used to control and enslave us. In other words, the pandemic narrative will continue to be used for evil ends until and unless people start fearing global tyranny more than they fear a case of fever and sniffles, and respond accordingly.
- 1 Fortune July 9, 2022
- 2 Twitter Compute My Angstroms July 9, 2022
- 3 Deadline July 5, 2022
- 4, 6 Eric Topol Substack June 27, 2022
- 5 Nature June 23, 2022
- 7, 9 CNN July 11, 2022
- 8, 11 NPR July 11, 2022
- 10 BioRxiv May 26, 2022 DOI: 10.1101/2022.05.26.493539
- 12 Time July 11, 2022
- 13 The Defender July 13, 2022
- 14 Time July 11, 2022 (Archived)
- 15 Daily Beast July 8, 2022
Two Storms, One Harvest
Every food crisis in living memory has been a one-shock event. The 2008 price spike was a commodity bubble. The 2020 shortages were a logistics failure. The 2022 grain scare was a war on one exporter’s ports. Each time, the system bent, adjusted, and recovered, and each time the experts assured us afterward that global markets are simply too big and too diversified to fail.
What nobody in Washington seems eager to discuss is that 2026 is shaping up to be something the modern food system has never actually faced. Two independent shocks, one climatic and one geopolitical, are converging on the same harvest cycle at the same time. Not sequentially. Simultaneously.
Start with the weather. The Pacific Ocean is currently building toward what forecasters now openly call a record event. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center puts the odds of at least a strong El Niño near 88 percent, with roughly two in three odds it reaches “very strong” status, the tier reserved for perhaps three or four events in the entire satellite era. Every major global model now projects a median peak in Super El Niño territory, and most of them project it exceeding the 2015-16 event, which until now held the modern record. Sea surface anomalies were already brushing the super threshold in mid-July, months before these events normally peak. The atmosphere has already shifted into El Niño mode, and the event is forecast to crest in late fall and early winter.
This is not about “climate change.” It’s about the standard cycles of weather, and the cycle we’re currently in is one that has likely devastated societies in the past. We’re better prepared as a society today, but not all Americans are equally prepared.
Serious households have started doing the quiet math on their own. Grocery bills tell part of the story, and the forecast maps tell the rest, which is why long-term food storage has moved from fringe hobby to mainstream line item in the family budget, with established suppliers like Heaven’s Harvest seeing demand from people who five years ago would have rolled their eyes at the idea. That instinct is not paranoia. It is pattern recognition, and the pattern is worth walking through carefully.
Editor’s Note: Heaven’s Harvest IS a sponsor, but the warnings of this article are real and would be written even if we didn’t have a survival food sponsor. With that said, those who take advantage of what they offer can use promo code “Patriot” for 15% off.
The Fertilizer Clock Is Already Running
While the Pacific warms, the second shock has been unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz. The conflict with Iran turned the world’s most important energy chokepoint into a contested waterway, and the consequences reach far beyond the gas pump. Roughly a third of global fertilizer trade moves through Hormuz, and the disruption sent urea prices up 86 percent year over year by March, with a 53 percent jump in a single month.
The World Bank projects energy prices rising about 24 percent in 2026 and fertilizer about 31 percent. By its own accounting, fertilizer prices ran 35 percent higher in the first five months of this year than the same period last year.
Here is the mechanism the nightly news will not explain. Fertilizer is not a grocery item. It is a time-delayed input. The nitrogen a farmer in Iowa or Punjab could not afford to apply this spring does not show up as a problem this spring. It shows up as a thinner harvest six to twelve months later.
The World Bank’s own food security brief concedes that the effects of reduced applications earlier this season “are likely to become visible only later in harvest outcomes.” Translate that from institutional language into plain English and it means this. The damage is already done, it is already in the ground, and we are simply waiting for it to arrive on the shelf.
Now check the calendar. Six to twelve months from the spring planting season lands us squarely in late 2026 and early 2027. Which is precisely when the strongest El Niño in the instrumental record is forecast to peak, bringing its signature droughts to Southeast Asia, Australia, southern Africa, northern Brazil, and South Asia, the very regions that grow the world’s rice, sugar, and oilseeds.
The World Bank warns openly that a strong El Niño “could disrupt multiple crop belts simultaneously” on top of the conflict-driven input costs. Their baseline projection assumes the Middle East disruptions ease by autumn. What in the last two years of Middle East history suggests that assumption is safe?
The System Has No Slack Left
The comfortable answer is that global markets always adjust. But adjustment requires slack, and the slack is gone. Global cereal production is expected to decline from last year’s records even before El Niño does its work. The UN World Food Programme, hardly a den of right-wing preppers, is calling this the most significant disruption to its supply chains since Covid and the invasion of Ukraine, and its supply chain director put the stakes bluntly.
Today’s supply chain challenges are tomorrow’s hunger crisis.
There is also a political dimension that markets cannot price. When food gets scarce, governments do not behave like economists. They behave like politicians. Export bans, hoarding mandates, and panic buying at the national level turned the modest rice shortfall of 2008 into a global crisis, and analysts are already warning that import-dependent nations are the first dominoes.
The 2015-16 Super El Niño, a far weaker event than what is now forecast, threw tens of millions into food stress across Africa and Asia. This one is projected to be stronger, and it arrives with fertilizer already rationed by price and shipping lanes already contested by missiles.
What Joseph Knew
Scripture does not treat preparation for lean years as faithlessness. It treats it as wisdom delivered in advance to those willing to act on it.
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt: And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt.
Joseph did not respond to that warning with a hashtag or a committee. He stored grain during the years of abundance, and when the famine came, Egypt stood while its neighbors begged. The lesson is not that famine is certain. It is that the time to prepare is precisely when preparation still looks optional.
Nobody who filled a pantry in a year of plenty has ever regretted it, and nobody standing in an empty aisle has ever been glad he waited for certainty.
None of this calls for panic, and panic is the enemy of sound judgment anyway. It calls for the same unglamorous prudence our grandparents considered ordinary. Keep some cash margin, know your local growers, and put real food in deep storage while it is cheap and available, because the entire arc of this story is that cheap and available is a closing window.
Families looking for a straightforward place to start can visit Heaven’s Harvest and use promo code Patriot for 15 percent off long-term storable food. The forecasts may yet soften, the strait may yet reopen, and we should pray they do. But hope is a fine thing to hold and a foolish thing to eat.
