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 ...
But, but, but...we are going to run out of ventilators! ICUs are full. All health care workers are worn to a frazzle.
If it’s more severe, AKA deadly, then it’s not a variant. It’s a new virus.
Completely contradicted by Dr John Campbell, whose videos on youtube nicely display the omicron genome and its two separate branches BA.1 and BA.2. Like brothas from the same motha, But BA.2 is more infectious.
Both equally mild. BA.2 is cleaning up fast and superceding BA.1
Both are leaving behind herd immunity
FEAR PORN!
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