The rise in case rates, even as counts remain uncertain due to the availability of at-home COVID tests, has sparked warnings and renewed calls for a cover-up in some locations. So what is it about the new variant that makes it particularly worrying and what should you watch out for? Here’s what we know so far.
What you need to know about BA.5?
As of July 2, the BA.5 subvariant was responsible for nearly 54% of COVID cases in the U.S. BA.4, a similar subvariant, accounted for nearly 17% more, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. David Montefiori, a professor at the Human Vaccine Institute at Duke University Medical Center, told NBC News that BA.4 and BA.5 are about three times less susceptible to neutralizing antibodies than existing COVID vaccines than the original version of the variant micron, BA. .1. Additional research suggests that BA.4 and BA.5 are four times more resistant to vaccine antibodies than BA.2. This subvariant replaced omicron as the dominant version of the coronavirus in the US in April. Marco Cavalleri of the European Medicines Agency said in an online briefing that the BA.4 and BA.5 mutations are expected to become dominant across the continent, “probably replacing all other variants by the end of July”. He said that while there is no evidence that the variants are making people sicker than previous strains of the virus, “the increase in transmission in the older age groups is starting to translate into severe disease.”
What symptoms should you watch out for?
The United Kingdom, where BA.4 and BA.5 infections are also responsible for the majority of recent COVID cases, reported runny nose, sore throat, headache, persistent cough and fatigue as the most common symptoms last week. Fewer than a third of people surveyed reported a fever, according to data from the Zoe COVID Symptom Study, which allows people to self-report symptoms through smartphone apps. The symptoms are consistent with those reported in the spring, when the BA.2 subvariant was dominant in the country. An update of the COVID vaccines is needed to combat the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants that are increasing the number of cases now, says Dr. Uché Blackstock, MSNBC medical contributor and head of Advancing Health Equity. According to the University of California, Davis Health, the reported symptoms of BA.5 are similar to previous variants of COVID: fever, runny nose, cough, sore throat, headaches, muscle pain and fatigue. At this point, there does not appear to be a difference in the symptoms seen in BA.4 or BA.5 cases, compared to previous omicron strains.
If you have had COVID in the past, how protected are you from BA.5?
Francois Balloux, director of the Institute of Genetics at University College London, said that while BA.1 and BA.2 are “quite different… BA.2, BA.4 and B.5 in terms of neutralizing antibody are essentially interchangeable”. Because of this, people who have had BA.2 infections may have some protection against the latest subvariants, he said. Although they spread faster than any others, BA.4 and BA.5 have not been found to cause more severe disease, according to doctors. “There’s really no clear evidence that they’re more or less likely to make people sick and cause serious illness and death,” Montefiori said. Dr. Nathan Grubaugh, an epidemiologist at the Yale School of Public Health, said people need to understand that variants like Omicron and BA.5 are a natural part of the virus’s evolution. “Delta was never going to be the last variant — and Omicron isn’t going to be the last,” he said, according to an article on the school’s website. “As long as there is an outbreak of COVID-19 somewhere in the world, there will be something new that will emerge.”
What steps can you take to protect yourself?
The best way to prevent new variants, Grubaugh and other doctors say, is to get vaccinated and get boosters. If more people are fully vaccinated, the chance of the virus spreading and mutating decreases, they argue. The European Union said on Monday it was “critical” that authorities in the 27-nation bloc consider giving a second coronavirus vaccine to people aged between 60 and 79 and other vulnerable people as a new wave of the pandemic sweeps the continent. “With cases and hospitalizations rising again as we enter the summer season, I urge everyone to get vaccinated and boosted as quickly as possible. There is no time to waste,” the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety said in a statement. Stella Kyriakidis. ECDC director Andrea Ammon said the new wave is being driven by the highly contagious BA.5 mutation of the micron variant of the coronavirus. “This marks the start of a new, widespread wave of COVID-19 across the European Union,” he said. “There are still too many people at risk of severe COVID-19 infection that we need to protect as soon as possible. We need to remind people of the importance of vaccination from the first shot to the second booster. We have to start today.” Meanwhile, New York public health officials on Friday urged residents to return to wearing masks indoors, noting how they are seeing high levels of COVID-19 infection. To help slow the spread, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recommended in a tweet that “all New Yorkers should wear a high-quality mask such as an N95, KN95 or KF94 in all public indoor spaces and around crowds outside.” .
What else should you know?
The spread of BA.5 also comes as scientists worry about a new omicron mutant – called BA2.75 – gaining ground in India and showing up in other countries. Scientists say the new variant may be able to spread quickly and overcome immunity from vaccines and previous infection. It is unclear whether it could cause more severe disease than other omicron variants, including BA.5. “It’s still too early to draw too many conclusions,” said Matthew Binicker, director of clinical virology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “But it seems that, especially in India, transmission rates are showing such an exponential increase.” Whether it will surpass BA.5, he said, has yet to be determined. However, the fact that it has already been detected in many parts of the world, even with lower levels of virus surveillance “is an early indication that it is spreading,” said Shishi Luo, head of infectious diseases for Helix, a company that supplies the virus sequencer. . information at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The latest mutant has been identified in several far-flung states in India and appears to be spreading faster than other variants there, said Lipi Thukral, a scientist at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology in New Delhi. It has also been detected in about 10 other countries, including Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom and Canada. Two cases were recently identified on the US West Coast, and Helix identified a third case in the US last week. The concerns of fuel experts are a large number of mutations that separate this new variant from its omicron predecessors. Some of these mutations are in regions associated with the spike protein and could allow the virus to bind to cells more efficiently, Binnicker said. Another concern is that genetic modifications may make it easier for the virus to bypass antibodies – protective proteins produced by the body in response to a vaccine or infection from a previous variant.
