Posted on 02/18/2022 12:40:47 PM PST by fluorescence
The BA.2 virus-- a subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant-- isn't just spreading faster than its distant cousin, it may also cause more severe disease and appears capable of thwarting some of the key weapons we have against Covid-19, new research suggests.
New lab experiments from Japan show that BA.2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older variants of Covid-19, including Delta.
And like Omicron, it appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines. A booster shot restores protection, making illness after infection about 74% less likely.
BA.2 is also resistant to some treatments, including sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody that's currently being used against Omicron.
The findings were posted Wednesday as a preprint study on the bioRxiv server, before peer review. Normally, before a study is published in medical journal, it is scrutinized by independent experts. Preprints allow research to be shared more quickly, but they are posted before that additional layer of review.
"It might be, from a human's perspective, a worse virus than BA.1 and might be able to transmit better and cause worse disease," says Dr. Daniel Rhoads, section head of microbiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Rhoads reviewed the study but was not involved in the research.
BA.2 is highly mutated compared with the original Covid-causing virus that emerged in Wuhan, China. It also has dozens of gene changes that are different from the original Omicron strain, making it as distinct from the most recent pandemic virus as the Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta variants were from each other.
Kei Sato, a researcher at the University of Tokyo who conducted the study, argues that these findings prove that BA.2 should not be considered a type of Omicron and that it needs to be more closely monitored.
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
Oh no they have it wrong. The real danger now is climate changes and the control freaks are about to introduce us to the Green New Deal Police Force.
What, only one author needed to make up lies? I though the technique was to have 3 or 4 “authors” for propaganda so they can blame each other when they get called out!
More fear porn from the Establishment and their media lapdogs.
I refuse to be intimidated by their attempts to enslave me.
Let me guess...................We need a new vax and more boosters!.....................
If CNN says it, it must be true. Because they have bureaus and stuff.
*yawn*
weasel word alert!
Well, we can expect this to shut down the country in around mid-September. So no one will actually be able to vote in person for the mid-terms. An earlier shut down would be preferred by the teachers’ unions, but they can’t always have their way.
This is going to clash with Brandon’s plan to declare that he done whupped the virus like he did Cornpop back in the day. The scriptwriters had better get on the same page.
This is why I pray for the system to crash into a pile of rubble.
FEAR PORN ALERT🎆🎆🎇
Since I'm not seeing any such calamity, I'm holding on to “BS, you're simply trying to extend this nonsense until the mid-terms”.
Screw em all.
Better to die free than live as a slave.
Right on time?
What other disease has ever done this?
Here we go again ....
“And like Omicron, it appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines. A booster shot restores protection, making illness after infection about 74% less likely.”
The doublespeak in this one sentence.
1. “And like Omicron, it appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines.”
It escapes the vaccines.
2. “A booster shot restores protection,”
But they just wrote it escapes the vaccine.
3. “making illness after infection about 74% less likely.”
So without explicitly saying it, the booster does not keep one from getting it..
Whew! New Mexico’s deep-blue governor dropped the state’s mask mandate for all including kids less than 24 hours ago. If they had seen this “fact-filled” CNN article, they would have used it as an excuse to keep it.
/s
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