None are so blind as those who will not see…

Author: G. Vanden Bossche                                                                                                                                April 7th, 2026

None are so blind as those who will not see…

Many people are getting tired of the SARS-CoV-2 (SC-2) pandemic and of the harsh consequences of the mass Covid-19 (C-19) vaccination campaign. I am not tired of it because, from a scientific standpoint, this unprecedented, but insane, mass gain-of-function experiment has unleashed extraordinary adaptive dynamics in both the virus and the host immune system. I realize it may sound cynical to say that the evolutionary dynamics of this pandemic have been among the most fascinating phenomena I have touched upon during my long career in infectious diseases.

And of course, the central feature of this disastrous experiment is its gain-of-function dimension, now playing out not in the laboratory but in the human population itself, a reality that almost nobody dares to openly talk about. And yet, whenever (young) children contract Covid-19 or develop post-infectious multisystemic inflammatory syndromes such as MIS-C, it is suddenly all hands on deck, as though SC-2 were inherently life-threatening to children! There is currently a great deal of discussion about the expansion of BA.3.2 (nicknamed ‘Cicada’) across multiple countries, fueling naïve speculation about its broad array of spike (S)-associated mutations, additional changes in the ORF7/ORF8 accessory proteins (https://academic.oup.com/ve/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ve/veag016/8527524), and its relatively high prevalence in children, the vast majority of whom are, thank God, unvaccinated (https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/new-covid-variant-cicada-ba-3-2-may-be-affecting-children-the-most-experts-say/articleshow/129983942.cms?from=mdr#google_vignette).

All of this seems difficult to interpret for virologists and epidemiologists who remain largely illiterate when it comes to immunology (https://edition.cnn.com/2026/04/02/health/new-covid-variant-cicada).

Some mutation trackers have even gone so far as to claim that a large deletion in ORF7/8 could render dendritic cells (DCs) tolerogenic or somehow ‘silence’ them (https://x.com/helaway/status/2041023879314125113?s=12).
This is, of course, absurd. Such large deletions may indeed dampen inflammation and reduce virulence by attenuating innate immune activation. At most, they may reduce DC hyperactivation and thereby contribute to milder acute disease. But they do not induce tolerance, nor do they silence DCs or drive regulatory T-cell dominance. If that were truly the case, BA.3.2 infection in young children would be expected to cause hyperacute disseminated viremia with high mortality. Clearly, that is not what is being observed.
However, for those who have followed not only the evolutionary dynamics of SC-2 in highly C-19-vaccinated populations, but also the way in which the adaptive immune system has been reacting to the evolving virus, understanding the age effect of BA.3.2 is actually quite straightforward. It has everything to do with the lines of immune defense predominantly used by young unvaccinated children, as compared to those predominantly used by vaccinated adolescents and adults.

In essence, it reflects the contrast between protection that still relies primarily on innate immunity, as in young unvaccinated and not yet frequently exposed children, and protection that has shifted toward adaptive mechanisms in C-19-vaccinated and/or repeatedly exposed adolescents and adults.

The bottom line is that BA.3.2 lineages appear to have evolved in a way that further mitigates inflammatory innate immune responses, thereby weakening antiviral immune responses and improving productive infectiousness (e.g., by virtue of reduced IL-10 secretion). This is not new. We have seen an increase of intrinsic viral infectiousness throughout the pandemic as a typical recurrent consequence of viral immune escape. It makes children, especially younger children, temporarily more susceptible than older individuals, particularly in highly C-19-vaccinated populations.

The more immune protection in such populations is provided by durable T cell-mediated control, directed against relatively conserved Tc epitopes, rather than by innate immunity, including innate or so-called ‘natural’ Abs, the greater the relative prevalence of BA.3.2 infection in the pediatric population, which still depends largely on innate immunity for protection against SC-2.  

As I have explained repeatedly, recurrent vaccine breakthrough infections in highly C-19-vaccinated populations progressively refocus immune protection away from humoral responses and toward cell-mediated control.
Hence, C-19-vaccinated individuals benefit more from durable T-cell-mediated suppression of acute disease, whereas unvaccinated adolescents and adults have, over time, built a strong immune defense through repeated training of their cell-mediated innate immunity, a type of immune defense that has been sidelined in C-19 vaccinees, as I have discussed many times before, including in my book (https://www.amazon.com.be/-/nl/Geert-Vanden-Bossche-DVM-PhD/dp/9493280802?language=en_GB#detailBullets_feature_div) and earlier manuscripts.

At this late stage of the pandemic, a variant that strongly evades anti-S antibodies (Abs) while simultaneously dampening innate inflammatory responses, such as BA.3.2, therefore has a greater selective advantage in children than earlier variants did.

But this seemingly remarkable epidemiological observation is not the main point. The real point is what it reveals about the relentless evolutionary drive of the virus to secure sustained transmission.

The ‘sweet’ sky, or perhaps I should say ‘the glycans on the S protein’, is the limit.

Mutation trackers, clinicians, and public health experts  appear more interested in surveying the share of BA.3.2 lineages across distinct age groups, thereby highlighting the significantly higher odds ratio for the pediatric share of these lineages compared to other lineages (https://x.com/rajlabn/status/2040650718609039487?s=12; https://x.com/rwittenbrink/status/2039794459001364594?s=12; https://x.com/rajlabn/status/2040256790214947162?s=12; https://x.com/longdeserttrain/status/2039897599658938863?s=12; https://x.com/longdeserttrain/status/2039897604192948548?s=12).

They call this an ‘epidemiological signal.’ But they fail to understand that it is far more than that. Young children are currently functioning as sentinels of a virus quietly exploiting the full range of possible S-associated mutations, or combinations thereof, ─not because these confer major fitness gains in the classical sense, but because the fitness advantage they generate increasingly creates steric complexity whose fitness cost requires the virus to incorporate additional immune-evasive S mutations to enable at least some gain, however small.
The children are the canaries in the coal mine, signalling the suffocating hostile immune environment. However, as even the combination and accumulation of multiple S-associated mutations no longer seems to provide sufficient fitness advantage on its own, the virus is now selecting additional mutations capable of subverting innate immune responses, as reflected by the growing pediatric share of BA.3.2 lineages.
And even if that signal were still not enlightening enough, how on earth can our public health authorities and self-proclaimed experts remain blind to an even more important reality: namely, that the acute manifestations of infection are now being kept largely under control by full commitment of the vaccinee’s cell-mediated immunity.

In other words, the adaptive immune system has already played all its trump cards to keep  disease symptoms caused by a virus that now almost completely escapes the repertoire of pre-existing neutralizing Abs under control (https://share.google/enTrNL7TcP1KzS5bb). And yet, despite openly acknowledging that BA.3.2 is largely resistant to neutralizing Abs induced by updated C-19 vaccines, these authorities and experts act as if continued protection of C-19 vaccinees against acute disease is nevertheless still granted by the vaccines and, therefore, even dare to recommend revaccination

(https://time.com/article/2026/03/31/new-covid-variant-cicada/; https://www.today.com/health/coronavirus/new-covid-variant-ba32-cicada-symptoms-2026-rcna265088; https://www.peoplespharmacy.com/articles/the-cicada-variant-covid-went-underground-but-its-back).
Meanwhile, the T-cell machinery is running at full throttle  to limit acute damage, while this ─for a normally acute, self-limiting viral infection─ unnatural response is now inevitably also contributing to the growing burden of immune pathology-based Long Covid cases.
Doesn’t a bell ring yet for the general public when, on the one hand, health authorities panic over one or two amino acid substitutions in the infectious protein of influenza virus (i.e. hemagglutinin), yet remain astonishingly calm when dozens of new mutations rapidly accumulate in the spike protein of BA.3.2, the very protein responsible for the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2?  
“It’s worth keeping an eye on it,” or “we’re watching it closely” they say (https://indianexpress.com/article/health-wellness/cicada-covid-variant-ba-3-2-explained-10616891/; https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/us/new-covid-variant-cicada-ba-3-2-may-be-affecting-children-the-most-experts-say/articleshow/129983942.cms?from=mdr#google_vignette; https://www.today.com/health/coronavirus/new-covid-variant-ba32-cicada-symptoms-2026-rcna265088).
But anyone should understand that if such a profound viral metamorphosis does not immediately amount to a death sentence for the host, then this can only mean one of two things: either the host is still being well protected by trained innate immunity, as is largely the case in the unvaccinated, or the adaptive immune system is making extraordinary efforts to nevertheless prevent acute collapse, as is most likely the case in the vast majority of C-19 vaccinees.

The extended deletions in ORF7/8, together with the astonishingly resourceful combinations of new S-associated mutations in BA.3.2, make it increasingly clear, however, that even these extraordinary efforts by the adaptive immune system may ultimately not suffice to control viral transmission across multiple highly C-19-vaccinated populations. This is because the circulating lineages can now also subvert some inflammatory cytokine pathways, thereby undermining the antiviral effect of these innate immune components while compromising the protective contribution of adaptive responses.

While the immune system in C-19 vaccinees is gradually reaching the limits of its compensatory capacity in this way,  the virus still retains substantial room to further enhance its reproductive fitness.

It would indeed be naive to assume the virus has no powerful strategies left to deploy! Even if the repertoire of amino acid substitutions that confer a clear competitive advantage appears increasingly constrained, the S protein retains a broad range of potential glycosylation changes that could drive a dramatic phase transition.
As I have described in detail before, the selection of an appropriate glycan constellation on the surface of the S protein could, in highly C-19 vaccinated populations, radically alter the pathogenesis of infection by enabling the virus to bypass antigen-presenting cells altogether, especially DCs, and thereby rapidly spread throughout  the host’s body via trans-infection and trans-fusion (https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/from-enhanced-infectiousness-to-enhanced-virulence-why-a-glycosylation-driven-shift-in-sars-cov-2-evolution-has-become-increasingly-likely-2cc974ed; https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/plausibility-of-more-extended-o-glycosylation-as-last-resort-for-sars-cov-2-immune-escape-e1a08faf).

This is not science fiction, but unfortunately a scenario that I consider highly realistic.

The viral evolutionary dynamics currently observed are precisely consistent with the prelude to such a major shift (https://www.trialsitenews.com/a/from-breakthrough-to-breakdown-simplified-version-d1eaad91; https://voiceforscienceandsolidarity.substack.com/p/the-virus-has-no-big-hands-left-to; https://voiceforscienceandsolidarity.substack.com/p/when-the-system-doesnt-bounce-back).

The only force that could prevent such an outcome is sterilizing group immunity, the famous ‘herd immunity.’ But as I have mentioned so often, the absence of the latter is precisely the most characteristic and at the same time the most damaging effect of the insane mass C-19 vaccination program.

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