Workers Quit Jobs in Droves To Become Their Own Bosses --- Seeking flexibility, employees are discovering their inner entrepreneur

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"The pandemic has unleashed a historic burst in entrepreneurship and self-employment. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are striking out on their own as consultants, retailers and small-business owners.

The move helps explain the ongoing shake-up in the world of work, with more people looking for flexibility, anxious about covid exposure, upset about vaccine mandates or simply disenchanted with pre-pandemic office life. It is also aggravating labor shortages in some industries and adding pressure on companies to revamp their employment policies.

The number of unincorporated self-employed workers has risen by 500,000 since the start of the pandemic, Labor Department data show, to 9.44 million. That is the highest total since the financial-crisis year 2008, except for this summer.

The total amounts to an increase of 6% in the self-employed, while the overall U.S. employment total remains nearly 3% lower than before the pandemic.

Entrepreneurs applied for federal tax-identification numbers to register 4.54 million new businesses from January through October this year, up 56% from the same period of 2019, Census Bureau data show.

That was the largest number on records that date back to 2004. Two-thirds were for businesses that aren't expected to hire employees.

This year, the share of U.S. workers who work for a firm with at least 1,000 employees has fallen for the first time since 2004, Labor Department data show. Meanwhile, the percentage of U.S. workers who are self-employed has risen to the highest in 11 years. In October, they represented 5.9% of U.S. workers, versus 5.4% in February 2020.

The self-employment increase coincides with complaints by many U.S. companies of difficulty in finding enough employees. In September, U.S. workers resigned from a record 4.4 million jobs, Labor Department data show.

Kimberly Friddle, 50 years old, quit her job as head of marketing for a regional mortgage company near Dallas in September 2020. Her daughters in the sixth and eighth grade were struggling with attending school virtually, and both were showing signs of anxiety. Although her employer was understanding, she wanted flexibility to provide them help without juggling Zoom meetings and projects.

Ms. Friddle planned to stay home indefinitely with the support of her husband, a pharmaceutical-company executive. But when a friend contacted her the next month, she saw an opportunity.

The friend sold home decor items on Amazon.com from his home in Canada, and Covid-related border restrictions were making it difficult to process returns. When he explained what he needed -- primarily, someone to examine returned items for damage and ship them back to Amazon -- Ms. Friddle felt the work could be a good challenge and a chance for her older daughter, Samantha, to gain work experience.

They began processing returns for him. When other sellers he knew needed help with warehouse-related tasks that were also made harder by the pandemic, he referred them to Ms. Friddle.

Now she runs an Amazon logistics, warehousing and fulfillment business full time from home outside Houston plus rented warehouse space nearby. Her older daughter works with her about 10 hours a week, and Ms. Friddle recently hired an assistant. She hopes to expand her services to Walmart vendors.

In July, the family's monthly income returned to roughly what it was before, Ms. Friddle said. Though the decision to leave her job was an emotional one, she said, a change after 27 years has given her new energy and confidence, besides the flexibility.

"I didn't have a plan when I left," she said. "I wasn't giving enough attention to the needs of my family. I wasn't giving enough attention to the job that needed to be done. I felt like I was failing everywhere."

Now, "I feel so successful and I wake up every day like, 'I wonder what's going to happen today.'"

Through the late 19th century, a large share of Americans worked for themselves, as farmers or artisans. With new technology such as electric lighting, manufacturing expanded, and many people left the field for the factory floor. They landed in an environment of strictly defined work hours and hierarchies -- workers overseen by managers overseen by executives.

By the time Covid-19 arrived in the U.S., the advent of apps, websites and companies catering to entrepreneurs and freelancers was already giving employees options.

Then, the pandemic spurred some people to "pause and re-evaluate their priorities," said Aaron De Smet, a McKinsey & Co. senior partner and consultant on labor trends.

Marcus Grimm, 50, of Lancaster, Pa., worked at advertising agencies from the time he finished college. For years, he toyed with freelancing. "I had always considered it, but literally just never had the guts to make the move," he said. "I was scared I would lose sleep every night worrying about my next dollar."

 

Early in the pandemic, Mr. Grimm was laid off. He logged onto Upwork, a website that connects freelance workers from a wide range of industries with potential clients. He fielded several assignments doing ad campaigns for big companies, charging a low hourly rate.

 

Business flowed in. He has steadily raised his rate, to $150 an hour. He said he now earns more than in his old job, which paid $130,000 a year.

His favorite part is not having to deal with corporate politics or any bureaucracy. He can go kayaking in the middle of the day.

"I'm the one who finds the client, I'm the one who does the work, and I'm the one who deals with any of the problems that come up," he said.

One client offered to hire him full-time, but he declined, Mr. Grimm said. "I told them, 'I've seen the light.'"

Etsy Inc., an online marketplace for individuals to buy and sell items, says it had 7.5 million active sellers as of Sept. 30 -- up 2.6 million from that time in 2019. Eight in 10 are women. Its surveys indicate more than 4 in 10 of the new sellers started their businesses for reasons related to the pandemic, including for some the need to stay home to care for family members.

On a recent investor call, Upwork Inc. Chief Executive Hayden Brown, citing a September 2020 survey, said: "A new type of career path has emerged, with half of the Gen Z [age 18 to 22] talent pool actually choosing to start their careers in freelance rather than full-time employment."

Based on a summer 2021 survey, Upwork concluded that 20% of people working remotely during the pandemic were considering leaving their jobs for freelance work.

At LinkedIn, the number of members who indicate they are self-employed by listing services from a field called "Open to Business" has quadrupled since the pandemic began, to 2.2 million, the company said. Nearly half of the new entrepreneurs have a college degree and nearly 4 in 10 a postgraduate degree.

Enterprises founded by women have grown by 27% and male-founded ones by 17% since the pandemic started, according to a LinkedIn analysis of user profiles. Meanwhile, Labor Department data show that in the two years through July, the number of self-employed female workers actively at work has grown 4.3%, while the number of self-employed male workers is down 1%, according to a Pew Research analysis.

Limited child-care or commuting options have helped spur some of the moves.

Matt Parrish of Raleigh, N.C., worked for a company that built retaining walls since graduating from the University of Florida roughly a decade ago. An engineer who managed projects, Mr. Parrish, 31, grew tired of dealing with the bureaucracy, such as when he wanted to hire someone. "I enjoyed the work I was doing, but I definitely felt like I was getting more and more pigeonholed because it was such a large company," he said.

He also wanted a schedule allowing more time with his newborn daughter. His employer provided just two weeks of paid parental leave, he said.

Mr. Parrish resigned in August and went into business as a consultant to homeowners and commercial-building owners on building retaining walls for construction projects. Being able to work from home and care for his daughter throughout the day was a primary reason, he said.

Instagram, YouTube and TikTok have provided new avenues to raise cash for aspiring entrepreneurs. Meanwhile, Robinhood Markets Inc. and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin have spurred a new generation of traders, some so successful they have quit their jobs to trade.

Josh Dorgan, who is 32, started trading cryptocurrencies in 2017 with a straightforward goal: to pay off the mortgage on a house he and his wife had bought in Omaha, Neb., as fast as possible.

Mr. Dorgan continued working as a pediatric nurse while trading litecoin, ether and XRP. His trading, plus advisory roles he took on with crypto companies, started taking more time, becoming hard to balance with his job managing the dialysis unit at Children's Hospital & Medical Center in Omaha.

When he told his wife, also a nurse, he wanted to quit and focus just on investing, she insisted they talk to a financial adviser first. With a professional's signoff, he quit the hospital job in August 2020. He said his trading profits the following week equaled his previous full-year salary.

He tries to confine his work -- including advising digital-currency firms and creating content for his nearly 200,000 Twitter followers -- to between 8:30 a.m. and noon, leaving time to spend with his 10-month-old son, golfing and visiting a lake house he and his wife bought recently.

"You don't just get into the markets and make money out of thin air," said Mr. Dorgan. Yet even in volatile trading conditions, he said, he feels far less pressure than when he was juggling investing with a full-time job: "When I'm at a red light, I don't feel like I'm rushed to get home anymore."

Part of the current shift to self-employment might prove temporary. The boom in self-employed day traders during the dot-com hoopla of the late 1990s deflated along with the stock bubble.

A sharp rise in savings -- boosted by a federal supplement to unemployment benefits, most recently $300 a week, that was paid for as long as 18 months of the pandemic -- provides some individuals a financial cushion to pursue self-employment. As they run down those savings, some might again want a regular paycheck, economists say.

In addition, if labor shortages ease, freelancers could face stiffer competition from companies in landing clients. Finally, if the pandemic recedes, so might one piece of the impetus to leave regular work in favor of self-employment. Five percent of unvaccinated adults say they left a job because of a vaccine requirement they opposed, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey in October.

Robert Spencer, 55, repaired bridges for Washington state's government for nearly a decade as a welder and fabricator. Mr. Spencer, who had a bout of Covid-19 early in the pandemic, left the job in October because he wasn't willing to comply with a vaccine mandate for state employees.

Mr. Spencer, who worked for himself before joining the state, bought supplies to run his own fencing business and lined up residential projects.

His wife now handles billing and accounts payable and receivable. He says the two will need to make financial adjustments in anticipation of a winter slowdown in home improvement.

If the state should change its rules and let everybody come back, "then obviously I would, because of the benefits," Mr. Spencer said. "But until then -- I'm not counting on it -- I plan on doing what I'm doing now. I enjoy it."” [1]

1. Workers Quit Jobs in Droves To Become Their Own Bosses --- Seeking flexibility, employees are discovering their inner entrepreneur

Mitchell, Josh; Dill, Kathryn.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 30 Nov 2021: A.1. 

 

Omicronas kelia pavojų skiepytiems žmonėms užsikrėsti

 „Keli mokslininkai teigia, kad „Covid-19“ viruso omicrono variantas gali sukelti daugiau infekcijų tarp paskiepytų žmonių, tačiau kai kurie teigė, kad yra priežasčių manyti, kad skiepai apsaugos nuo sunkios ligos.

 

    Nors naujasis variantas gali išvengti antikūnų, susidarančių, reaguojant į vakcinas, virusas greičiausiai išliks pažeidžiamas imuninėms ląstelėms, kurios jį sunaikina, kai jis patenka į organizmą, sakė Uguras Sahinas, „Covid-19“ vakciną su partneriu Pfizer Inc. parduodančios BioNTech SE,  įkūrėjas.

 

    „Mūsų žinutė yra tokia: neišsigąskite, planas išlieka tas pats: paspartinkite trečiojo revakcinacijos etapo įvedimą“, – antradienį sakė daktaras Sahinas.

 

    Prireiks kelių savaičių, kol mokslininkai, dirbantys su pagrindiniais vakcinų gamintojais, atlikdami laboratorinius tyrimus nustatys, ar esamų skiepų sukurti antikūnai yra veiksmingi prieš naująjį variantą. Vėliau iš pacientų surinkti duomenys atskleis, kaip dažnai paskiepyti žmonės, užsikrėtę Omicron, patiria lengvus ar sunkius Covid-19 atvejus.

 

    Kol kas patvirtintų infekcijų, susijusių su naujuoju variantu, nedaug, todėl sunku apibendrinti šių atvejų išvadas, ypač todėl, kad, užsikrėtus Covid-19, pacientams tik vėliau gali pasireikšti sunkūs simptomai.

 

    Vis dėlto, remdamasis dabartinėmis žiniomis apie vakcinų mechanizmus ir variantų biologiją, daktaras Sahinas teigė manantis, kad imunizuoti žmonės turėtų aukštą apsaugos lygį nuo sunkių ligų, net jei būtų užsikrėtę omicrono variantu.

 

    Daktaras Sahinas sakė, kad įrodyta, kad skiepas, kurį jis ir jo komanda sugalvojo 2020 m. sausį ir sukūrė kartu su Pfizer, apsaugo nuo sunkių ligų nuo kitų koronaviruso variantų, kuriais užkrečiami paskiepyti žmonės.

 

    Sahinas sakė, kad šiuo metu paplitęs variantas „delta“ labiau tinka užkrėsti paskiepytus žmones, nei ankstesni variantai, tačiau šie žmonės dažniausiai patiria tik lengvus simptomus.

 

    BioNTech ir Pfizer sukurta vakcina, kaip ir dauguma kitų vakcinų, siūlo du skirtingus apsaugos nuo viruso sluoksnius. Pirmąjį sudaro antikūnai, kurie gali padėti apsaugoti žmones nuo užsikrėtimo, nes neleidžia virusams kolonizuoti sveikų kūno ląstelių.

 

    Tačiau, remiantis kai kuriais tyrimais, antikūnai pradeda mažėti, praėjus maždaug penkiems mėnesiams po antrosios dozės. Dr. Sahinas sakė, kad dėl didelio mutacijų skaičiaus „omicronas“ gali geriau apeiti antikūnus, susidariusius po kontakto su vakcina, nei „delta“.

 

    Ši „omicrono“ savybė gali paaiškinti, kodėl preliminarūs tyrimai rodo, kad „Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.“ antikūnų kokteilis nėra toks veiksmingas prieš „omicroną“, kaip prieš senesnius variantus, antradienį pranešė bendrovė. Išoriniai mokslininkai teigė, kad kitas Eli Lilly & Co. antikūnų kokteilis taip pat praranda veiksmingumą.

 

    Vakcinos taip pat suteikia antrąjį apsaugos sluoksnį: imuninės sistemos agentai, vadinami T-ląstelėmis, kai kurios iš jų mobilizuojasi, kad sunaikintų užkrėstas ląsteles po infekcijos.

 

    „Net kaip pabėgimo variantas, virusas vargu ar sugebės visiškai išvengti T ląstelių“, – sakė daktaras Sahinas.

 

    Tai reiškia, kad net jei įrodyta, kad vakcinos yra mažiau veiksmingos, neutralizuojant omicrono variantą, jos vis tiek gali pasiūlyti gerą apsaugą nuo sunkių ligų ir mirties, sakė dr. Sahinas.

 

    Kai kurie ekspertai yra skeptiškesni. Dr. Sahinas komentavo po to, kai „Moderna Inc.“ vadovas Stephane'as Bancelas „Financial Times“ pasakė, kad jis tikisi, kad dabartinės vakcinos nuo COVID-19 bus mažiau veiksmingos kovojant su „omicrono“ variantu.

 

    Stanley Plotkin, veteranas mokslininkas, sukūręs daugybę vakcinų, įskaitant skiepus nuo raudonukės, sakė, kad daktaro Sahino prielaidos yra „neatlygintinos ir be jokių įrodymų“.

 

    Dr. Plotkinas sakė, kad iki šiol gauti duomenys rodo, kad antikūnai atlieka pagrindinį vaidmenį, apsaugant nuo koronaviruso, ir kad yra mažai įrodymų, kad T ląstelės visiškai apsaugotų nuo sunkių simptomų.

 

    Tačiau jis teigė, kad evoliuciškai būtų prasminga, kad viruso mutacijos, dėl kurių virusas tampa labiau užkrečiamas, bet mažiau mirtinas žmonėms - šeimininkams, laikui bėgant taptų dominuojančios.

 

    Tačiau kiti ekspertai sutinka su daktaru Sahinu. Profesorius Luke'as O'Neillas, imunologas ir Dublino Trinity koledžo (Airija) biochemijos katedros vedėjas, sakė, kad daktaro Sahino prielaida yra prasminga imunologiniu požiūriu.

 

    „Yra optimizmo, kad T ląstelės išlaikys liniją – jos labai gerai stabdo sunkias ligas“, – sakė jis. Nepaisant to, jis teigė, kad revakcinacijos kampanija turi būti paspartinta, ir pridūrė, kad „omicrono“ atėjimas greičiausiai sukurs trijų injekcijų vakcinaciją, kaip optimalų imunizacijos nuo koronaviruso protokolą.

 

    Iki šiol mokslininkai ir gydytojai Pietų Afrikoje, regione, kur pirmą kartą buvo aptiktas naujasis variantas, teigė, kad maždaug trys iš keturių šiuo metu šalyje hospitalizuotų žmonių buvo neskiepyti, daugelis kiyų gavo tik vieną dozę.

 

     Ekspertai perspėjo, kad bendras pacientų skaičius kol kas išlieka per mažas, o jų infekcijos per naujos, kad būtų galima daryti tvirtas išvadas, ar omicronas sukelia lengvesnius ar sunkesnius Covid-19 atvejus, nei kiti variantai.

 

     Peteris English, išėjęs į pensiją JK užkrečiamųjų ligų kontrolės konsultantas, perspėjo, kad tyrėjai taip pat norėtų matyti duomenis savo šalyse, nes Pietų Afrikos gyventojai yra vidutiniškai jaunesni, nei daugelio Vakarų šalių, o skiepijimų lygis yra palyginti mažas."[1]

1. U.S. News: Omicron Risks Infecting Vaccinated People

Pancevski, Bojan.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 01 Dec 2021: A.6.

Omicron is a risk for vaccinated people to be infected

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"The Omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus could lead to more infections among vaccinated people, according to several scientists, but some said there were reasons to believe the shots would protect against severe disease.

While the new variant might evade the antibodies generated in reaction to the vaccines, the virus likely will remain vulnerable to immune cells that destroy it when it enters the body, said Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech SE, which sells a Covid-19 shot with partner Pfizer Inc.

"Our message is: Don't freak out, the plan remains the same: Speed up the administration of a third booster shot," Dr. Sahin said Tuesday.

It will take a couple of weeks for scientists working for the main vaccine makers to determine through laboratory tests whether antibodies generated by the existing shots are effective against the new variant. Later on, data collected from patients will reveal how often vaccinated people infected with Omicron go on to experience mild or severe Covid-19 cases.

So far, there are few confirmed infections involving the new variant, making it difficult to generalize findings from these cases, especially because it can take weeks for Covid-19 patients to develop severe symptoms after they become infected.

Still, based on current knowledge about the mechanisms behind the vaccines and the biology of variants, Dr. Sahin said he assumes that immunized people would have a high level of protection against severe disease even if infected by the Omicron variant.

Dr. Sahin said the shot, which he and his team invented in January 2020 and developed with Pfizer, has been proven to protect against severe illness from other coronavirus variants that infect vaccinated people.

The currently prevalent variant, Delta, has proven more adept at infecting vaccinated people than earlier variants but those people mostly experience only mild symptoms, Dr. Sahin said.

The vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer, like most other vaccines, offers two distinct layers of protection against the virus. The first comprises antibodies, which may help prevent people from becoming infected in the first place by preventing viruses from colonizing healthy cells in the body.

Antibodies, however, start to wane around five months after the second dose, according to some studies. Due to the high number of mutations, Omicron is likely to be better at circumventing the antibodies generated after contact with the vaccine than Delta, Dr. Sahin said.

This characteristic of Omicron may explain why preliminary tests suggest that an antibody drug cocktail from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. isn't as effective against Omicron as against older variants, the company said Tuesday. Outside scientists said another antibody drug cocktail from Eli Lilly & Co. also appears to lose effectiveness.

 

Vaccines also provide a second layer of protection: Immune agents called T-cells, some of which mobilize to destroy infected cells after an infection has occurred.

 

"Even as an escape variant, the virus will hardly be able to completely evade the T-cells," Dr. Sahin said.

 

That means that, even if the vaccines are shown to be less effective at neutralizing the Omicron variant, they could still offer good protection against severe disease and death, Dr. Sahin said.

 

Some experts are more skeptical. Dr. Sahin's comments come after Moderna Inc. Chief Executive Stephane Bancel told the Financial Times that he expects the current Covid-19 vaccines would be less effective at tackling the Omicron variant.

Stanley Plotkin, a veteran scientist who developed a number of vaccines, including the shot against rubella, said Dr. Sahin's assumptions are "gratuitous and without any proof."

Dr. Plotkin said data so far indicates that antibodies play a key role in protecting from coronavirus, and that there is little evidence that T-cells would be fully protective against severe symptoms.

However, he said it would make evolutionary sense for mutations in the virus that make it more infectious but less deadly to human hosts to become dominant over time.

Other experts, however, agree with Dr. Sahin. Professor Luke O'Neill, an immunologist and chair of biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland said Dr. Sahin's assumption make sense from an immunological point of view.

"There is optimism that the T-cells will hold the line -- they are very good at stopping severe disease," he said. Even so, he said the booster campaign must be accelerated, and added that the arrival of Omicron would most likely establish a three-shot vaccination as the optimal protocol for immunization against coronavirus.

So far, scientists and doctors in South Africa, in the region where the new variant was first detected, said that about three out of four people currently hospitalized in the country were unvaccinated, while others had received only one dose.

Experts cautioned that the overall number of patients so far remains too small -- and their infections too recent -- to draw firm conclusions on whether Omicron leads to milder or severe cases of Covid-19 than other variants.

Peter English, a retired consultant in communicable-disease control in the U.K., cautioned that researchers would also want to see data in their own countries because the South African population is younger on average than many Western countries and has a relatively low rate of vaccination." [1]

1. U.S. News: Omicron Risks Infecting Vaccinated People

Pancevski, Bojan.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 01 Dec 2021: A.6.

JAV naujienos: teigiama, kad vaistų kokteiliai praranda veiksmingumą prieš omikrono variantą

„Preliminarūs tyrimai rodo, kad Covid-19 antikūnų kokteilis iš Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. praranda veiksmingumą prieš omicroną“, antradienį pranešė bendrovė, o tai yra ženklas, kad kai kuriuos svarbios terapijos klasės produktus gali prireikti modifikuoti, jei nauja padermė plačiai išplis.

 

    Atskiras kito autorizuoto Covid-19 antikūnų vaistų kokteilio iš Eli Lilly & Co tyrimas rodo, kad jis taip pat nėra toks veiksmingas prieš omicroną, teigia išorės mokslininkai. Lilly teigė, kad bando naująjį variantą prieš gydymą antikūnais ir nespėlioja, kokie bus rezultatai.

 

    Šios išvados yra ankstyvieji tyrėjų lenktynių rezultatai, siekiant įvertinti naujojo omicrono varianto poveikį Covid-19 gydymui, kuriuo pasitikėjo pacientai, gydytojai ir ligoninės, taip pat kuriamoms tabletėms, kurios žadėjo apsaugoti žmones nuo ligoninės.

 

    Tyrėjai teigia, kad kai kurios antikūnų terapijos gali būti ypač pažeidžiamos omicrono, nes jame yra smailių baltymų mutacijų, į kurias nukreipiami vaistai Regeneron ir Lilly, o kiti vaistai turėtų gerai išsilaikyti, nes atakuoja nepakitusius viruso elementus.

 

    Monokloniniai antikūnai yra laboratorijoje pagamintos molekulės, gautos iš Covid-19 išgyvenusių žmonių arba pelių, sukurtų turėti žmogaus imuninę sistemą. Sušvirkštus netrukus po užsikrėtimo, vaistai prisitvirtina prie koronaviruso paviršiaus ir neleidžia jam daugintis naujose ląstelėse.

 

    Tai yra vieninteliai vaistai, leidžiami gydyti pacientus, kuriems gresia didelė rizika susirgti sunkiais atvejais, kol jiems nereikia hospitalizuotis.

 

    Vaistai skiriasi nuo vakcinų, kurios treniruoja imuninę sistemą, kaip apsiginti nuo viruso, įskaitant antikūnų gamybą. Praėjusiais metais buvęs prezidentas Donaldas Trumpas įvertino Regenerono vaistą už greitą pasveikimą nuo COVID-19.

 

    „Regeneron“ teigė, kad per ateinančias savaites galės kiekybiškai įvertinti varianto poveikį, kai bus atlikti tolesni bandymai.

 

    Jei galutinis tyrimas rodo, kad jos antikūnų vaistai yra mažiau veiksmingi prieš omicroną, Regeneron sukūrė alternatyvius antikūnus, kuriuos ji gali panaudoti, atliekant klinikinius tyrimus ir kurie, jos nuomone, išliks veiksmingi prieš variantą, sakė bendrovės prezidentas ir vyriausiasis mokslo darbuotojas George'as Yancopoulosas.

 

    Vienas iš alternatyvių Regeneron antikūnų jau yra klinikiniuose tyrimuose, kuriuos bendrovė pradėjo, tikėdamasi, kad laikui bėgant atsiras naujų variantų.

 

    Praėjusią savaitę Pietų Afrikos mokslininkai nustatė omicrono variantą, todėl vaistų tyrėjai pradėjo grumtis ir išsiaiškinti, ar palyginti nedidelė Covid-19 gydymo vaistų dėžutė vis dar veiks prieš naują padermę.

 

    „Turime pripažinti, kad per pastarąsias šešias dienas mūsų skubumas išaugo“, – sakė daktaras Yancopoulosas. „Tai, kas prasidėjo, kaip atsarginis planas, dabar tapo daug skubesnis.

 

    Fredo Hutchinsono vėžio tyrimų centro Sietle mokslininkai nustatė, kad atskiros omicrono mutacijos sumažino arba pašalino Regenerono ir Lilly vaistų gebėjimą prisijungti prie viruso, sakė mokslų daktarė Allie Greaney.

 

    Ji sakė, kad norint visiškai suprasti poveikį, reikia atlikti išsamesnius vaistų testus prieš visą variantą.

 

    Lilly šiuo metu bando naują variantą prieš savo vaistą, dviejų antikūnų, vadinamų bamlanivimabu ir etesevimabu, derinį, sakė Nicole Kallewaard, Lilly virusologė ir tyrimų patarėja. Ji atsisakė komentuoti rezultatus, rodančius sumažėjusį veiksmingumą prieš atskiras omicrono mutacijas, nes rezultatai gali skirtis, kai derinamos visos mutacijos.

 

    Padidėjęs omicrono paplitimas gali sudaryti galimybę konkurentams, kurie teigia, kad jų vaistai neatrodė, kad preliminariuose tyrimuose gali būti paveikti šio varianto, įskaitant Vir Biotechnology Inc. ir GlaxoSmithKline PLC, kurių vaistas sotrovimabas buvo leistas naudoti skubiu atveju anksčiau.

 

    Fredo Hutchinsono mokslininkai taip pat teigė, kad jų pradiniai tyrimai parodė, kad Vir-GSK antikūnų vaistas išlaikė savo veiksmingumą. 

 

Adagio Therapeutics Inc., biotechnologija su Covid-19 antikūnų klinikiniais tyrimais, teigė, kad naujasis variantas taip pat neturi įtakos jos antikūnams. Viras, Glaxo ir Adagio teigė, kad atlieka tolesnius bandymus. [1]

1. U.S. News: Drug Cocktails Said to Lose Effectiveness Against Strain

Walker, Joseph.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 01 Dec 2021: A.7.