By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com The school semester is almost over. Many people are in a quandary as to whether Eretz Yisroel will re-open for school winter vacation or not.  Those who already have tickets and those who have not yet bought them are asking, “But why two weeks?” The following discussion will try to clearly explain the answer to that question. In the answer we can learn more about this particular variant and thus be more informed as to how it should be approached. The Omicron variant is officially called B1.1.529. We don’t know so much about it yet, because it was only discovered on November 11th.   It was, however, fully sequenced on over 100 people recently – that means scientists can see it entire genome. The variant has been seen in southern Africa, Eretz Yisroel, Hong Kong, Belgium. Italy, Germany, France and we will soon be seeing it in other countries too. WHAT IS CONCERNING The reason that all of these countries are going crazy about it – is that this particular variant has a number of mutations on all three major areas. HOW THE MUTATIONS HAPPEN A SARS-CoV-2 viral particle enters and infects a human being. It now reproduces itself many, many times inside that human being. Within that person there can be up to a billion or even a trillion different copies of that original tiny little SARS-CoV-2 virus. The problem is that the replication is not perfect. There may be copying errors leading to mutations.  When the proteins are copied, different amino acids get mixed up in the mutant viruses. DIFFERENTLY SHAPED The proteins will now be shaped a lit bit differently.  Most of the new shapes will be harmless.  Some can mutate or use a different amino acid that can infect people more quickly than the original version.  Our immune system may see them as the same protein or as a different protein.   Many of our cells have receptors on them.  The virus has a spike protein on the surface of it which interacts with our ACE-2 Receptors.  These protein receptors are found on the surface of cells in our GI tract, our respiratory tract and in our vascular system. HOW MUTATIONS CAN MAKE AN IMPACT Mutations that are on the tip of the spike protein can effect whether binding will or will not happen – depending on how mutated the virus ends up. This is also the key area that will determine the interaction aspect of the antibodies are produced.  The mutations can be inside the particle, on the outside or on the spike tip. There are three major areas in which we can divide this viral particle: There is the virus itself with mutations inside the viral particle that can make different proteins. There is the spike protein, which is specifically the entire spike protein on its surface. There is the very tip of the spike protein, known as the receptor binding domain. This is where our immune system will or will not recognize the SARS-CoV-2 virus. ** There is a Yesoma who boruch Hashem just got engaged.  If anyone would like to assist in making her chasuna please donate here or contact the author.** After the replication process occurs millions of times, there will be mutations. If the mutations make it easier […]

The post Omicron and Israel: But Why Two Weeks? appeared first on The Yeshiva World.