In the YouTube video titled “Geert’s Concern about the New Covid Variant (JN.1),” Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, a virologist with a background in molecular biology and immunology, expresses his concerns about the harmful effects of Covid-19 vaccines and the business model of the pharmaceutical industry. He warns of the potential dangers of focusing solely on vaccine solutions, particularly in light of the emergence of new Covid variants.
Dr. Vanden Bossche argues that these vaccines do not fit the definition of a vaccine, as they cannot be controlled in terms of dose or duration. He also discusses the concept of “immune refocusing,” which can hinder the immune system’s ability to adapt when encountering a new variant, and the phenomenon of “immo quiet” or “immo silent” epitopes, which can recognize previously masked antigenic sites within the Spike protein but do not effectively neutralize the virus, instead enhancing its infectiousness.
Dr. Vanden Bossche warns of the emergence of more infectious variants like JN.1 and GN1 due to suboptimal immune pressure and immune focusing towards cellular responses.
Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche also expresses deep concerns about the evolution of the Covid virus and the diminishing effectiveness of vaccines. He explains that virulence-inhibiting antibodies are decreasing, putting pressure on the virus and making vaccines ineffective. Furthermore, the lack of proper training of the innate immune system due to vaccine breakthrough infections is leading to a corrupted adaptive immune system.
Vanden Bossche anticipates a new, more virulent variant could emerge soon, impacting vaccinated individuals more severely than unvaccinated ones. Despite missing the timeline of the new variant’s emergence, he emphasizes the importance of conveying truthful information and taking action to address the real issue – the evolving crisis caused by the virus. Geert encourages viewers to consider his message and acknowledges the possibility of being wrong.
Detailed Description
Geert Vanden Bossche is a veterinary medicine and virology expert with a background in molecular biology and immunology. He expresses his concern about the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic, stating that he is more worried now than he was even at the beginning. He goes on to describe his academic and professional background, including his work in the vaccine industry and with global health organizations like the Gates Foundation and Gavi. Throughout the interview, Gert shares his expertise and insights on the Covid-19 pandemic and its current challenges.
Geert also expresses his concerns about the new Covid variant (JN.1) and reflects on his past criticisms of mass vaccination efforts, which he believed would have detrimental consequences. He recalls raising warnings about the polio and Ebola vaccinations and being met with opposition from health organizations and the industry, but ultimately being proven right. Despite feeling isolated and criticized for his critical voice, Geert remains steadfast in his belief that truth and science are powerful allies. Despite the challenges, he acknowledges the importance of vaccines and the difficult decision that comes with challenging an industry that has provided significant benefits to the world.
Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche argues that the vaccines do not protect against infection, but only against the disease. In a global health context, preventing infection is mandatory to fight a pandemic, and failing to do so results in the virus spreading, generating new variants that can evade the protection provided by the vaccines. This results in a self-perpetuating cycle of variant generation, turning a natural pandemic into an immune escape pandemic. Despite the obvious issues, some people still argue that the vaccines protect against severe disease and covid-19 related illness. Dr. Vanden Bossche is flabbergasted that this argument is still used, as it does not consider the global health context and the potential for immune escape variants
Geert then discusses his concerns surrounding the continued vaccination efforts despite the emergence of new Covid variants. He argues that the current focus on vaccination does not address the long-term consequences, including the potential overburdening of healthcare systems. Geert asserts that heavily vaccinated populations are experiencing a spiral of transmission, and viable options for controlling the virus appear to have been exhausted. From a virological, immunological, and clinical perspective, the virus continues to evolve, with no herd immunity or endemicity in sight. Geert expresses worry that this cycle of breakthrough infections and immun escape could eventually lead to something very serious
Geert further expresses concerns about the current vaccines for COVID-19, specifically the mRNA vaccines. He argues that these vaccines do not fit the definition of a vaccine as they cannot be controlled in terms of dose, location, or duration. Geert explains that these vaccines allow the proteins to be produced in the body of the vaccinated person and spread throughout the body, which is unprecedented in vaccinology. From a definition perspective, he does not consider these vaccines to be vaccines, despite their ability to generate immune responses against the antigen produced in the human cell. Geert also mentions that these vaccines can induce immune refocusing, which sets up a chain of immune escape. The speaker points to a scientific paper published in October 2021 that shows the response of the neutralization response with regards to the B.1 vent variant booster, which is part of his argument against the effectiveness and safety of the current COVID-19 vaccines
Virologist Geert also discusses the concept of “immune refocusing” in relation to the new Covid variant (JN.1). He explains that, even without a booster, the strongest antibody response to the original variant is still present, creating a focus on the original variant in the immune system. This can hinder the immune system’s ability to adapt when encountering a new variant. While immune refocusing is a known term in vaccinology, the speaker notes that they have not seen this phenomenon occur naturally before. The immune system’s response to vaccine breakthrough infections can boost previously induced antibodies, allowing them to still have some neutralizing effect, but this effect is short-lived. These antibodies, which initially have lower affinity and target less immunogenic epitopes, can drive the propagation of more infectious variants due to their suboptimal immune pressure
When discussing the potential disadvantages of mRNA vaccines in regards to the production of low affinity antibodies against dominant epitopes, Geers explains that this phenomenon leads to immune pressure and the selective propagation of more infectious variants. According to Geert, the prolonged expression of the Spike protein on the surface of transfected cells during mRNA vaccine production induces imperfect low affinity antibodies, which automatically prioritize subdominant epitopes. He states that after the second dose of mRNA vaccines, cross-neutralizing antibodies against several different variants can be observed. However, Geert expresses concern that this immune response will not improve and instead suggest that administering vaccines or booster doses will accelerate immune refocusing events and immunp escape. He emphasizes that the neutralization observed with these antibodies is not real, but rather pseudo-neutralization due to their low affinity
Geert Vanden Bossche continues by expressing his concerns about the effectiveness of existing antibodies against the new covid variant. He explains that these antibodies, which are called low Affinity antibodies, interact with the virus through multiple arms, creating a multimeric distribution on the surface of the virus. These antibodies can only react with the virus when it is presented as a multimeric structure and cannot react with the monovalent spike. This results in pseudo-neutralizing activity, meaning that these antibodies can only mitigate the infection, not inhibit it completely. Due to the prolonged suboptimal functional activity, immun escape is tremendously driven, leading to the succession of more infectious variants sharing most of their mutations. Geert criticizes the scientists for misleading information presented without testing the antibodies using monovalent spike in an Eliza assay, which would reveal their true neutralizing capacity. He summarizes that while antibodies may lose their neutralizing capacity, they can still attach to single particles and have an infection-enhancing effect, making the situation complex
Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche goes into more detail on the concept of “imuno quiet” or “imuno silent” epitopes, which are non-neutralizing antibodies that can recognize previously masked conserved antigenic sites within the Spike protein. These antibodies have a high affinity for these sites but do not effectively neutralize the virus, instead enhancing its infectiousness by promoting the stabilization of viral aggregates. Over time, with each new immune response following a vaccine breakthrough infection, the immune system may focus on less immunodominant domains of the virus, generating antibodies with even lower affinity, promoting the formation of even larger aggregates that are more readily taken up by antigen-presenting cells
Geert explains that antigen-presenting cells love to pick up larger particles and induce CTL responses, which is why the evolution of JN.1 is so worrisome. While Public Health authorities claim that JN.1 is not more virulent than other variants, Geert contends that this overlooks the message that JN.1 is conveying through its mutations. Upon analyzing these mutations, one can understand the immune pressure that caused them and predict what is to come. Geert finds it suspicious that vaccines are still effectively neutralizing these newly emerging variants despite the changes in the spike protein. He shares images from research papers to demonstrate the frightening continuous evolution of the virus, with mutations on top of previous ones. Geert criticizes scientists and health experts for only presenting data after a boost and claiming the presence of neutralizing antibodies, but these may be low Affinity antibodies that interact with the virus in a way that generates dampened infectiousness, immune escape, and suboptimal immune pressure.
Geert Vanden Bossche also expresses concern over the new Covid variant, GN1. He explains that monovalent antibodies can only interact with the multimeric presentation of the spike on a viral particle or on viral aggregates, limiting their neutralizing effect. He further states that highly vaccinated populations have developed antibodies that stabilize aggregates, which are now primarily taken up by antigen presenting cells and driving mitigation of infection. By killing infected cells, cytotoxic T-cells play a role in mitigating the infection, but this process also drives the emergence of more infectious variants like GN1. Observations include GN1 spreading like wildfire, a surge in hospitalization, severe disease, and death, and the emergence of mutations in non-spike viral proteins that enhance infection. Geert concludes that GN1 is the result of immune pressure on the virus.
Geert Vanden Bossche explains that these newly synthesized antibodies can promote the stabilization of larger viral aggregates, which are taken up by antigen-presenting cells and stimulate CTL (cytotoxic T-lymphocytes) responses. CTLs are not specific to the Spike protein, but bind strongly to the universal epitope. Geert theorizes that this shift in the immune response from humoral responses to cellular responses may lead to the emergence of more infectious variants, as the mutations are directed against the universal epitope. He also criticizes the claim that T-cells are important in mitigating the infection, stating that there is no evidence of memory T-cells being involved, and they can only interact once the cell is already infected. Geert concludes that the new variant, although not itself more virulent, indicates a shift in the immune focusing towards cellular responses, which could be leading to suboptimal immune pressure on viral infectiousness.
The virologist then discusses the shift from antibody-mediated immune response to cell-mediated response in dealing with new covid variants. He explains that as the concentration of neutralizing antibodies increases, they can mask newly discovered epitopes, allowing the immune system to recognize more conserved epitopes. This is referred to as immune refocusing. However, the speaker also notes that a dramatic stimulation of CTL responses, due to large aggregates, can overwhelm antigen-presenting cells and cause them to prioritize CTL stimulation over T-helper peptide stimulation. This can lead to a decline in antibodies and weaker rebooting of the immune response. The lower concentration of antibodies and diminishing affinity will then move the graph further to the right, indicating even more CTL stimulation and less stimulation of T-helper cells. Unfortunately, the speaker concludes that due to the antigen-presenting cells prioritizing CTL stimulation over T-helper peptide stimulation, none of the updated vaccines will effectively work
Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche expresses his alarm over the diminishing concentration of infection enhancing antibodies in individuals who have received booster shots, which he believes are responsible for inhibiting the virulence of the virus. He explains that these infection enhancing antibodies also block the transfer of the virus from dendritic cells to susceptible cells in the body, inhibiting virulence. The shift towards CTL-mediated mitigation of infection, according to Dr. Vanden Bossche, will result in a diminished concentration of these infection enhancing or virulence inhibiting antibodies, putting suboptimal immune pressure on viral virulence. He uses the examples of Omicron and the Harbinger variant to illustrate this concept, suggesting that a new variant could emerge very soon with heightened virulence due to the intense immune pressure on a small domain within the protective antigen. Dr. Vanden Bossche also explains that unvaccinated individuals, who have shifted towards their innate immune system, will not be affected by the new variant as their innate immunity can become stronger with training. However, he emphasizes that the issue is that vaccinated individuals, due to vaccine breakthrough infections and high antibody titers, have been unable to train their innate immune system, resulting in a corrupted adaptive immune system that is becoming increasingly useless as their last line of defense against virulence.
Geert Vanden Bossche explains that the virulence inhibiting antibodies are decreasing, putting pressure on the virus and making the vaccine ineffective. Additionally, he notes that the innate immune system wasn’t fully trained due to vaccine breakthrough infections being sidelined. Dr. Vanden Bossche predicts that when a new variant emerges, some unvaccinated individuals may experience completely asymptomatic or mild infections due to their immune systems being trained by more infectious variants. However, he also warns that the continuous exposure to the virus in a highly vaccinated community can pose a risk to everyone. He uses the analogy of physical training to explain the impact of infectious variants on the immune system and emphasizes that the nonvariant-specific innate immune system can deal with different types of variants as long as it is trained to handle a higher level of infectiousness.
Geert says the focus of the Covid crisis has shifted to a fight between those promoting vaccination and boosters, and those raising concerns about their safety, but that both parties are distracting from the real issue, which is the evolution of the virus. Geert warns that the virus is “running away with the bone” due to its rapid spread and immune pressure on virulence-inhibiting antibodies, and that memory T cells, which can mitigate infection, have not been shown to be induced by vaccines or natural infections. Geert anticipates a significant rise in mortality from Covid-19 and encourages viewers to be aware of this potential outcome.
Geert also discusses his concerns about the rapid progression of a new covid variant and the immense damage it is anticipated to cause. Although he admits to missing the timeline of its emergence, he emphasizes the significance of conveying truthful information. He explains that the immune refocusing mechanism, which allows the immune system to recover and prolong viral spread, no longer applies to this new variant as it progresses rapidly. He predicts that there will be a transition from asymptomatic infections among unvaccinated individuals to severe cases and deaths in vaccinated populations within a continuum. Geert urges that the damage will be enormous and emphasizes the reality of the evolving situation, which he believes is beyond our control
Geert argues that the neutralizing effect of antibodies against the new variant is much lower and Virus spreads as it is under infection mitigating pressure. The speaker asserts that there will be no more infectious variants, a new variant will emerge in highly vaccinated countries, the rate of mortality and morbidity will increase exponentially in vaccinated populations, and African populations will not be affected. He recommends that people who are thoroughly vaccinated take antivirus and predicts that there will be mandates for taking antivirals in the future. The speaker expresses his conviction that history will show that those who did not try to suppress the viral spread at this point will not be on the right side of history
Geert remarkedly expresses his deep concern about the current crisis caused by the new Covid variant. He believes that we are facing a monumental crisis and emphasizes the importance of taking action. Geert shares that he cannot accept the disaster as a human being but only accepts it as a scientist. He has done extensive research on the topic and asserted that all the elements of biophysics, immunology, virology, and vaccinology fit together in a way that doesn’t violate any laws or rules regarding these disciplines. Geert strongly believes that this is the truth and is preparing for the chaos that is coming. However, he criticizes health authorities for only looking at the surface of the situation and not examining what is happening beneath the surface, where the real danger lies. Geert’s passionate and convincing message highlights his commitment to humanity and his willingness to stand up and speak out against the crisis
At the end of the video, Geert acknowledges the possibility of being wrong but emphasizes that if his concerns about the new Covid variant prove to be true, the implications would be difficult for everyone.