New COVID-19 variants raise limited worries of new spikes

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

About one out of three COVID-19 cases in the United States now stem from the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the omicron strain, which are on their way to becoming the most dominant coronavirus strains in the country.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 11.4 and 23.5 percent of U.S. COVID-19 cases are caused by the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants.

Early data also suggests these subvariants escape immunity more efficiently than previous lineages of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

“The BA.4 and the BA.5 subvariants are about three to six times less sensitive to the neutralizing antibodies that the body makes in response to infection and vaccination,” David Montefiori, virologist and Duke University professor, told The Hill.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/new-covid-19-variants-raise-limited-worries-of-new-spikes/ar-AAYMdli

[speak easy]

1. Nature: BA.2.12.1, BA.4 and BA.5 escape antibodies elicited by Omicron [B.1] infections

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04980-y

SARS-CoV-2 is doing what viruses do (if they can) - evolving to escape the body's defenses built up with earlier variants. It puts pressure on vaccine makers to come up with a more general vaccine.