Newer, fitter descendants of Omicron variant begin to drive their own coronavirus waves https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/03/health/fitter-omicron-descendants-covid-variants/index.html
New Omicron subvariants are spreading: Should we worry? https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/new-omicron-subvariants-are-spreading-should-we-worry Despite what many of us might like to believe, COVID-19 has not gone away. South Africa recently identified two new subvariants of Omicron — designated BA.4 and BA.5. These subvariants have now spread to several other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. Should we be concerned about them? Medical News Today assessed the evidence and spoke to experts in the U.S. and the U.K. to find out. Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Omicron — the list of SARS-CoV-2 variantsTrusted Source continues to expand. And no sooner have we got used to one variant than another appears. Latest on the list are the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which were identified recently in South Africa, one of the few countries that are still sequencing large numbers of COVID-19 tests. South Africa has seen a rapid increase in positive tests for COVID-19, and authorities believe that BA.4 and BA.5 are responsible. The National Institute of Clinical Diseases in South Africa reports that BA.4 and BA.5 are “Omicron viruses with a new combination of mutations.” Scientists in this country first detected BA.4 on January 10, 2022, and it has since spread throughout South Africa, now making up 35% of positive tests. BA.5 was identified on February 25, and now accounts for 20% of cases in several South African regions. Spike protein mutations Both subvariants are similar to Omicron BA.2, which is currently dominant in the U.K., continental Europe, and the U.S. BA.4 and BA.5 have identical mutations on their spike proteinTrusted Source — the part of the virus that attaches to receptors on human cells — that differentiate them from BA.2. Each subvariant has its own different mutations in other areas of the virus. “We have learned that the [COVID-19-causing variants] are more mutable than we initially thought. Periodically we get major new variants — that’s a big shift. But we also get little, what we call ‘drift variants.’ You can think of them as members of the same family […] they’re like cousins.” – Prof. William Schaffner, professor of infectious diseases at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, TN Where are the variants? So far, BA.4 and BA.5 have been identified in several countries in addition to South Africa. According to a report from the U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA), with data up to April 22, BA.4 was present in Austria, the U.K., the U.S., Denmark, Belgium, Israel, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Australia, Switzerland, and Botswana. On the same date, health authorities had identified BA.5 in Portugal, Germany, the U.K., the U.S., Denmark, France, Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, Israel, Norway, Pakistan, Spain, and Switzerland. Few countries are sequencing large numbers of positive tests, despite the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) statingTrusted Source on May 4 that “testing and sequencing remain absolutely critical.” “In many countries we’re essentially blind to how the virus is mutating. We don’t know what’s coming next.” — Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General He is not alone in his concern about the lack of sequencing. Prof. Christina Pagel, professor of operational research at University College London (UCL) and director of the UCL Clinical Operational Research Unit, told Medical News Today that “[w]e are opening ourselves up to a serious new wave — particularly in winter — that we would not be able to spot in time.” Variants of concern Although the numbers recorded for both variants are currently low, the actual case numbers are likely to be much higher. Without sequencing of positive tests, the variants that cause COVID-19 cannot be identified. On May 12, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reclassified BA.4 and BA.5 as variants of concern. This followed a sharp rise in cases in Portugal, where the Portuguese National Institute of Health estimated on May 8 that BA.5 was responsible for around 37% of all positive cases. The ECDC reports that although there is no evidence yet of increased severity over previous variants, BA.4 and BA.5 do appear to be more transmissible. “The Omicrons are an extraordinarily contagious family. There are some data that say these subvariants are even more contagious. […] Do they have the capacity to produce more severe disease? At the moment, if anything, Omicron seems to be on the milder side.” – Prof. William Schaffner In the U.S., the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionTrusted Source (CDC) have also designated BA.4 and BA.5 as variants of concern. The U.K. has not yet followed suit. However, the UKHSA published a risk assessment of the two subvariants comparing them with Omicron BA.2. This suggests that the new subvariants may be better at evading the immune system than BA.2, but that the data is insufficient to draw firm conclusions. In South Africa, which has identified the greatest number of cases, symptoms and severity seem similar to those of disease caused by Omicron BA.2. So far, the number of hospitalizations there has increased only slightly. Vaccines and the new subvariants Some good news from GAVI — the vaccine alliance — is that although antibodies from previous Omicron infection do not seem to afford much protection against the new variants, antibodies from vaccination appear to be much more effective. Prof. Schaffner agreed that vaccines should protect against severe disease from the new variants: “These are slightly different mutations of the spike protein — are they so different that they cannot be responsive to our vaccines? The answer is ‘no’.” However, he is concerned that “vaccine fatigue” may be having an effect: “Of course, vaccines don’t prevent disease — vaccination prevents disease. And the issue, at least in [the U.S.], is can we persuade people to come forward yet again to be vaccinated? There is clearly vaccine fatigue out there.” He added that “[t]he more people we can vaccinate around the world [the more we can] reduce the chance of these rogue variants popping up.” Prof. Jonathan Stoye, FRS, principal group leader, and international affairs ambassador at the Francis Crick Institute in London, U.K., agreed: “It does not seem unreasonable to ask whether a greater emphasis should not be placed on attempting to provide and deliver a vaccine which can be administered to all the world’s unprotected people, particularly those in lower and middle-income countries.” Surveillance is vital It is likely that BA.4 and BA.5 will spread further, and that they will not be the last new variants. Prof. Pagel expressed concern that lack of testing and sequencing may mean that variants are not detected early: “n England, for instance, we are only really doing PCR tests on hospital admissions […] [and] because admissions are skewed towards older populations, it will take longer for variants to show up if they spread first among children and young people — as has been typical so far.” These concerns were echoed by Prof. Schaffner, who said that “[w]e require a coordinated international surveillance system, and critical to that is the sequencing of viruses. Number one: To detect these minor subvariants. It’s always better to know than not [to] know.” “And then, of course, the sequencing is utterly important to pick up that rare event when we would get another rogue strain that could evade the protection of our vaccines,” he added. It is likely that COVID-19, in whatever form, will be with us for some years to come — the key question is, can we keep it under control as we try to get life back to normal? “As we’ve moved from pandemic phase to endemic, how will we cope? Are we going to come to some sort of fraught truce with this virus? We haven’t figured out how to do that yet.” — Prof. William Schaffner
The Covid variants are evolving. The most recent Covid Omicron variant BA.2.12.1 combines properties of both Omicron and Delta. Which is both a good news and bad news scenario. The good news being that if you had a previous case of Delta then you may have some natural protection against the new variant. Previously having any prior variant of Covid (including Delta) provided no protection whatsoever against an Omicron variant. The bad news is that the BA.2.12.1 Omicron variant "spreads faster than its omicron predecessors, is adept at escaping immunity and might possibly cause more serious disease". Dominant coronavirus mutant contains ghost of pandemic past https://apnews.com/article/covid-sc...es-pandemics-72462053f8d60fd548cf34377864100b The coronavirus mutant that is now dominant in the United States is a member of the omicron family but scientists say it spreads faster than its omicron predecessors, is adept at escaping immunity and might possibly cause more serious disease. Why? Because it combines properties of both omicron and delta, the nation’s dominant variant in the middle of last year. A genetic trait that harkens back to the pandemic’s past, known as a “delta mutation,” appears to allow the virus “to escape pre-existing immunity from vaccination and prior infection, especially if you were infected in the omicron wave,” said Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas. That’s because the original omicron strain that swept the world didn’t have the mutation. The omicron “subvariant” gaining ground in the U.S. — known as BA.2.12.1 and responsible for 58% of U.S. COVID-19 cases last week — isn’t the only one affected by the delta mutation. The genetic change is also present in the omicron relatives that together dominate in South Africa, known as BA.4 and BA.5. Those have exactly the same mutation as delta, while BA.2.12.1 has one that’s nearly identical. This genetic change is bad news for people who caught the original omicron and thought that made them unlikely to get COVID-19 again soon. Although most people don’t know for sure which variant caused their illness, the original omicron caused a giant wave of cases late last year and early this year. Long said lab data suggests a prior infection with the original omicron is not very protective against reinfection with the new mutants, though the true risk of being reinfected no matter the variant is unique to every person and situation. In a twist, however, those sickened by delta previously may have some extra armor to ward off the new mutants. A study released before it was reviewed by other scientists, by researchers at Ohio State University, found that COVID patients in intensive care with delta infections induced antibodies that were better at neutralizing the new mutants than patients who caught the original omicron. “The omicron infection antibody does not appear to protect well against the subvariants compared to delta,” said Dr. Shan-Lu Liu, a study author who co-directs the viruses and emerging pathogens program at Ohio State. But Liu said the level of protection a delta infection provides depends partly on how long ago someone was ill. That’s because immunity wanes over time. People who got sick with delta shouldn’t think of themselves as invulnerable to the new subvariants, especially if they’re unvaccinated, Long said. “I wouldn’t say anyone is safe.” One bright spot? Booster shots can provide strong protection against the new mutants, Liu said. In general, vaccines and prior infection can protect people from the worst outcomes of COVID-19. At this point, scientists say, it’s too early to know if the new mutant gaining ground in the U.S. will cause a significant uptick in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Scientists are still trying to figure out how virulent these new mutants are. Long said he hasn’t seen anything that answers that question for him, but Liu said emerging data points toward more serious illness. Liu said the subvariants have properties suggesting they spread more efficiently cell-to-cell. The virus “just hides in the cell and spreads through cell-to-cell contact,” Liu said. “That’s more scary because the virus does not come out for the antibody to work.” Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, said the new mutants certainly don’t appear less virulent than previous versions of omicron, and whether they are more virulent or not “will become clear in the months ahead.” In the meantime, scientists expect the latest powerhouse mutants to spread quickly, since they are more transmissible than their predecessors. Though home testing makes it tough to track all U.S. COVID cases, data from Johns Hopkins University shows that cases are averaging nearly 107,000 a day, up from about 87,000 two weeks ago. And new hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19 have been trending upwards since around mid-April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I’m hopeful that we don’t see a similar increase in hospitalizations that we’ve had in prior waves,” Long said. “But with COVID, any time you have lots of people being infected, it’s just a numbers game. Some of those people are going to be severe. Some of those people are going to need hospitalization. Some of them, unfortunately, are going to pass away.”
Meet the new master Omicron variant - BA.5. The unvaccinated will have an opportunity for a serious up close and personal meeting with the new Omicron "god". BA.5 Omicron Is Winning The Covid Variant Battle In The U.S., Especially In The Southwest https://deadline.com/2022/06/ba-5-omicron-winning-covid-variant-u-s-1235039866/
An in-depth Twitter thread from a medical researcher on the viral characteristics of BA4 and BA5 with graphics and information.
This May Be the COVID Variant Scientists Are Dreading A brand new subvariant is starting to surge, and there are signs this one can dodge our immunity. https://www.thedailybeast.com/this-may-be-the-covid-variant-scientists-are-dreading
What to Know About Omicron's Parade of Subvariants https://www.cnet.com/health/medical/what-to-know-about-omicrons-parade-of-subvariants/