The rise of more severe, more infectious variants is a significant issue. Sadly with a good portion of the world unvaccinated the generation of more variants of concern is likely over the upcoming months. As BA.2 subvariant of Omicron rises, lab studies point to signs of severity https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/health/ba-2-covid-severity/index.html 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. "As you may know, BA.2 is called 'stealth Omicron,' " Sato told CNN. That's because it doesn't show up on PCR tests as an S-gene target failure, the way Omicron does. Labs therefore have to take an extra step and sequence the virus to find this variant. "Establishing a method to detect BA.2 specifically would be the first thing" many countries need to do, he says. "It looks like we might be looking at a new Greek letter here," agreed Deborah Fuller, a virologist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who reviewed the study but was not part of the research. Mixed real-world data on subvariant's severity BA.2 is about 30% to 50% more contagious than Omicron. It has been detected in 74 countries and 47 US states. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 4% of Americans with Covid-19 now have infections caused by BA.2, but many other parts of the world have more experience with this variant. It has become dominant in at least 10 other countries: Bangladesh, Brunei, China, Denmark, Guam, India, Montenegro, Nepal, Pakistan and the Philippines, according to World Health Organization's weekly epidemiological report. But, there's mixed evidence on the severity of BA.2 in the real world. Hospitalizations continue to decline in countries where BA.2 has gained a foothold, like South Africa and the UK. But in Denmark, where BA.2 has become the leading cause of infections, hospitalizations and deaths are rising, according to WHO. Resistant to monoclonal antibody treatments The new study found that BA.2 can copy itself in cells more quickly than BA.1, the original version of Omicron. It's also more adept at causing cells to stick together. This allows the virus to create larger clumps of cells, called syncytia, than BA.1. That's concerning because these clumps then become factories for churning out more copies of the virus. Delta was also good at creating syncytia, which is thought to be one reason it was so destructive to the lungs. When the researchers infected hamsters with BA.2 and BA.1, the animals infected with BA.2 got sicker and had worse lung function. In tissues samples, the lungs of BA.2-infected hamsters had more damage than those infected by BA.1. Similar to the original Omicron, BA.2 was capable of breaking through antibodies in the blood of people who'd been vaccinated against Covid-19. It was also resistant to the antibodies of people who'd been infected with Covid-19 early in the pandemic, including Alpha and Delta. And BA.2 was almost completely resistant to some monoclonal antibody treatments. But there was a bright spot: Antibodies in the blood of people who'd recently had Omicron also seemed to have some protection against BA.2, especially if they'd also been vaccinated. And that raises an important point, Fuller says. Even though BA.2 seems more contagious and pathogenic than Omicron, it may not wind up causing a more devastating wave of Covid-19 infections. "One of the caveats that we have to think about as we get new variants that might seem more dangerous is the fact that there's two sides to the story," Fuller says. The virus matters, she says, but as its would-be hosts, so do we. "Our immune system is evolving as well. And so that's pushing back on things," she said. Right now, she says, we're in a race against the virus, and the key question is, who's in the lead? "What we will ultimately want is to have the host be ahead of the virus. In other words, our immunity, be a step ahead of the next variant that comes out, and I don't know that we're quite there yet," she said. For that reason, Fuller says, she feels like it's not quite time for communities to lift mask mandates. "Before this thing came out, we were about 10 feet away from the finish line," she said. "Taking off the masks now is not a good idea. It's just going to extend it. Let's get to the finish line."
Yep... as more information is coming out. BA.2 has all the "best" qualities of Omicron and Delta combined. And just in time to catch the US forgetting Covid ever existed, too.
There are estimates from models that 70% of the U.S. population may have immunity (short-term) to Omicron via vaccination and/or natural immunity. The concern is if having a previous case of Omicron will provide any immunity against Omicron BA2 --- especially since this strain has now been found to be more infectious than Omicron and more deadly than Delta in studies.
More contagious version of omicron spreads in U.S., fueling worries As the omicron surge continues to decline in the U.S., infectious disease experts are keeping a close eye on an even more contagious version of the variant that could once again foil the nation's hopes of getting back to normal. The virus, known as BA.2, is a strain of the highly contagious omicron variant that appears to spread even more easily — about 30% more easily. Because BA.2 quickly overtook the original omicron in South Africa and other countries and has even caused a second omicron surge in Denmark, researchers have been bracing for the same thing to happen in the U.S. "A lot of us were assuming that it was going to quickly take off in the United States just like it was doing in Europe and become the new dominant variant," says Nathan Grubaugh, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health. So far that hasn't happened. Instead, BA.2 has slowly, but steadily spread even as the omicron surge continued to dissipate. The fear is that spread may be on track to rapidly accelerate in the near future. BA.2 has now been found from coast to coast and accounts for an estimated 3.9% all new infections nationally, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It appears to be doubling fast. "If it doubles again to 8%, that means we're into the exponential growth phase and we may be staring at another wave of COVID-19 coming in the U.S.," says Samuel Scarpino, the manager director of pathogen surveillance at the Rockefeller Foundation.
Omicron subvariant BA.2: Experts ask to declare new strain 'variant of concern'; Here's why Another variant of coronavirus has become a matter of concern for several medical scientists and experts across the globe. The Omicron subvariant BA.2, is the new Covid-19 strain, which the experts have warned that it is capable of causing serious illness just like the 'Delta' variant. A Japanese study led by researchers from the University of Tokyo has concluded that the BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant is not only faster at spreading, but may also cause more severe disease. As a result, American public health scientist, Dr Eric Feigl-Ding has suggested to the World Health Organization (WHO) that the new Omicron sub-variant must be declared as a 'Variant of concern'.
The good news is that a Danish study shows that having an Omicron case may provide reasonable protection against the BA.2 Omicron variant. It can infect you twice (first with Omicron then with BA.2) but the chances are rare. Omicron can infect you twice: Expert explains severity, reinfection symptoms by BA.2 sub-variant https://www.livemint.com/science/he...ms-by-ba-2-subvariant/amp-11645532785321.html With Omicron BA.2 dethroning previously identified BA.1 subvariant, questions regarding reinfection are looming large. A Danish study has recently revealed that it is not impossible to get infected with two sub-variants of Omicron, but the chances are rare. The researchers also suggested the virus load would be less the second time considering the patient is likely to develop immunity the first time. The new study was led by researchers at Denmark's top infectious disease authority, Statens Serum Institut (SSI). However, it is yet to be peer-reviewed. "We provide evidence that Omicron BA.2 reinfections are rare but can occur relatively shortly after a BA.1 infection," the study authors said. The reinfections mostly affected young, unvaccinated individuals and only caused mild disease, none of which led to hospitalisations or deaths, the researchers added BA.1 and BA.2 differ by up to 40 mutations. While BA.2 accounts for more than 88% of cases in Denmark, cases have started to increase in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Norway. (More at above url)
Fast-spreading COVID-19 omicron type revives questions about opening up BA.2 subvariant now accounts for more than a third of global cases https://www.foxnews.com/health/omicron-sub-variant-renews-concerns-reopening A more infectious type of the omicron variant has surged to account for more than a third of global COVID-19 cases sequenced recently, adding to the debate about whether countries are ready for full reopening. Health authorities are examining whether the subvariant of omicron, known as BA.2, could extend the length of COVID-19 waves that have peaked recently in Europe, Japan and some other places. "We’re looking not only at how quickly those peaks go up, but how they come down," World Health Organization epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said. "And as the decline in cases occurs…we also need to look at: Is there a slowing of that decline? Or will we start to see an increase again?" BA.2 accounted for only 3.9% of COVID-19 infections in the U.S. in the week through Feb. 12, according to the most recent estimate released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. After an omicron surge in December 2021, the U.S. has experienced an equally sharp and steady fall. Other countries have had more trouble shrugging off omicron. In Denmark, where an estimated 92% of cases were BA.2 as of mid-February, a peak at the end of January was followed by another two weeks later. Evidence so far suggests BA.2 is some 30% more infectious than its cousin, the BA.1 subvariant that kicked off the omicron wave in southern Africa in November 2021. In South Africa, BA.2 has accounted for 82% of cases so far in February, according to health authorities in that country. Overall, BA.2 accounted for 35% of COVID-19 virus samples whose genomes were recently submitted to the global Gisaid database, according to a Gisaid update released Tuesday. Studies so far suggest that both types of omicron pose about the same risk of severe disease in humans. That risk is lower than last year’s delta variant, but with so many people getting infected, the death toll from omicron is still high. A South African analysis comparing a group with likely BA.1 omicron against another group with likely BA.2 found both groups had roughly equal odds of being hospitalized and developing severe disease. Early studies suggest that vaccines and booster shots work equally well in both omicron types in preventing serious illness. A study by the U.K. Health Security Agency found both types could easily get around the immunity of people who had received their full primary course of vaccination at least six months earlier. But a booster shot restored protection against symptomatic disease from both variants, to 69% for BA.1 and 74% for BA.2. Still, some initial research in test tubes and animals leaves room for concern that BA.2 might be more harmful. A team led by Kei Sato at the University of Tokyo found that BA.2 had an easier time invading the cells in the lungs of hamsters compared with BA.1. Prof. Sato said BA.2 has as many differences from BA.1 as last year’s delta variant had from the original virus detected in Wuhan, China. He said BA.2 might merit its own Greek-letter name rather than being classed as a type of omicron. New York University virologist Nathaniel Landau has led research suggesting that omicron BA.2 is even better than BA.1 at evading monoclonal antibody drugs developed to fight COVID-19. Nonetheless, he said a new Greek letter wouldn’t be needed unless BA.2 turned out to be more harmful to humans. "If it were to turn out that it has higher pathogenicity, that would then be a reason. But at this point, no," he said. Scientists said the public-health measures to deal with omicron were generally the same regardless of its type—vaccination, booster shots, social distancing, masks, good ventilation and so on. The question is whether the spread of the even more infectious omicron type should affect the loosening of restrictions. Denmark lifted all restrictions on Feb. 1, only to see a rise in deaths in people infected with COVID-19. Officials said the virus wasn’t the cause of some of the deaths. WHO officials said the threat of BA.2 was a reason for caution. In Japan, where BA.2 has recently been detected, the head of the country’s doctors association, Toshio Nakagawa, said the country should keep restrictions such as encouraging restaurants to close early. "Infections might increase again, depending on how BA.2 spreads from now on," Dr. Nakagawa said. Some governments say that with the public weary after two years of COVID-19, it is time to open up. They observe that the population in many countries has built up considerable immunity to SARS-CoV-2 through multiple vaccination rounds, previous infection or both. The U.K. is ending all restrictions starting Thursday, including a legal requirement to self-isolate for those who test positive. "It is a day when all the efforts of the last two years finally enable us to protect ourselves while restoring our liberties," Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
There has been ongoing research continuing on how infectious the omicron BA.2 variant is -- is it more or less infectious than measles (the most infectious disease on the face of the earth). Well it appears the answer is being arrived at. Omicron sub-variant almost as infectious as measles, the most contagious disease on earth https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/covid-omicron-infectious-measles-b2034376.html