BCSnob wrote:

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The first evidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection in WTD came on the tails of widespread evidence of exposure in this species across the northeastern USA 12. First reported in Iowa 15, followed by evidence from Ohio 14, SARS-CoV-2 infection in WTD appeared to be widespread and has been speculated to have resulted from multiple spillover events from humans. Most recently, evidence of exposure in both captive and free-ranging deer has now been reported in Texas, extending the known geographic range in North America 16,44. In this report, we describe the first detection of SARS-CoV-2 exposure and infection in WTD in Canada. Overall, SARS- CoV-2 was detected in 1.2% (95% CI 0.2–3.6%) of the nasal swabs from sampled deer and neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 were detected in 5.6% (95% CI 3.3–9.2%). Notably, the prevalence of infection of SARS-CoV-2 in WTD described in the present study is much lower than what was reported in Iowa (33.2%) and Ohio (35.8%) 14,15. Similarly, our described seroprevalence is substantially lower than the 40% reported for the northeastern USA, or the 37% reported from Texas 12,44. This observation may suggest that spillover of SARS-CoV-2 to WTD in this region of Québec is a recent occurrence.

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SARS-CoV-2 has evolved variants within a few years since its emergence. Current vaccines that im641 munize with the WT spike show reduced efficacy for some of these variants, especially the newly
emergent Omicron variant. This suggests that vaccines that can protect against multiple variant strains are becoming increasingly important. However, while SARS-CoV-2 is mutable, it is less so than influenza and HIV. Therefore, while universal vaccines against influenza and HIV largely focus on redirecting antibody responses to elicit bnAbs that target conserved regions only, such an approach may not be necessary to protect against SARS-CoV-2 variants. Targeting conserved regions may have disadvantages as well, as antibodies targeting the conserved class 4 RBD epitope can be non-neutralizing (Jette et al. (2021)). In this paper, based on analyses of structures and sequences, we designed antigens that may protect against the most significant antibody-evading variants. Using a neural network, we check that these antigens are viable and can bind ACE2, and so may emerge in the future. We also use a computational model of AM to show that a cocktail of these antigens provides stronger protection against current variants and certain potential variants than the WT vaccination does. In particular, a specific cocktail (sequence 1-6) is predicted to be optimal

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Taken together, the bulk of our results predict that a specific cocktail of variant antigens used as an immunogen would offer protection against variants of SARS-CoV-2 that may emerge in the future. We hope that experimental efforts to test this prediction will follow. We also suggest one vaccination scheme that may help protect against diverse coronaviruses.

BCSnob wrote:

The next next place to look are the websites for various pharmacies in your area that offer vaccinations.
Walgreens
CVS
Etc

Or your state health dept
https://covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov/

BCSnob wrote:

I’ve only seen news articles and 2-3 preprints of studies, so far, on Omicron BA.2. What I have seen suggests we should be paying attention to how infections by it progress in other countries. There are hits it may be more infectious than omicron BA.1 (the variant we’re dealing with now).