Bianco: OMICRON will trigger lockdowns

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Tweet thread from Jim Bianco to raise the hair on one’s neck:

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A few points:

  • Bianco was an early mover when the pandemic first appeared. Take from that what you will.
  • Things are not as bad in Australia as Bianco suggests meaning he may be a little emotional about political responses.
  • Will still don’t know if OMICRON is less virulent in health impacts but critical cases have begun to rise in South Africa.

There is mixed news from Pfizer:

Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said initial lab studies show a third dose of their Covid-19 vaccine may be needed to neutralize the omicron variant, results that will accelerate booster-shot drives around the world and may lead to use of new strain-specific vaccines.

Company researchers observed a 25-fold reduction in neutralizing antibodies that fight the variant, compared with the original strain of the virus, in people who got just two shots. However, boosting with an additional shot of the vaccine restored protection to a level similar to the initial two-dose regimen, the vaccine partners said in a statement.

Well, that’s good, I guess. We were all going to get a booster anyway. Though it is certain to boost the anti-vaxxer movement and social unrest.

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About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.