We now know very well that viruses mutate. What we are facing right now is the Omicron variant. While this variant is known for the way vaccines and other treatments have managed to bypass some immune protection, it doesn’t seem as deadly as Delta and is said to even end the epidemic.
But when Omicron is mentioned, don’t think of a uniform variant. Scientists are tracking a sub-variant of BA.2, or “hidden omicron,” with the variant becoming the dominant version in some countries, including Denmark. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the BA.2 subvariant is responsible for close to 5% of COVID-19 cases in the United States for the week ending February 12.
WHO’s technical lead for COVID-19, Dr. “BA.2 is definitely on the rise, but it should be remembered that this is also Omicron,” Maria Van Kerkove said in a statement. “We don’t see any difference in severity between BA.2 and BA.1.”
Van Kerkove says BA.2 is more contagious than other sub-variants of the omicron. Due to its increased contagiousness, some scientists are concerned that the rise of BA.2 could prolong our current wave of COVID-19, bringing with it more hospitalizations and deaths.
Scientists in South Africa were quickly able to identify a new variant of omicron this winter. Omicron BA.2, on the other hand, does not have the so-called S gene target error signal like the original omicron. This makes it more secretive and therefore can also be called a “hidden omicron”.
A yet to be peer-approved Danish study says there is no difference in hospitalization rates between the original omicron variant and BA.2. But another preliminary study by researchers in Japan claims that BA.2 may be different enough from the original omicron variant to be considered an entirely new variant, and may also be more severe.
At the moment, however, all reports are preliminary, and scientists need more information and time to monitor how the current increase in COVID-19 cases is falling (or not falling). More research is needed to determine how successful our COVID-19 treatments, including Paxlovid, are. A preliminary study found that one of the two monoclonal antibody treatments authorized for use against omicron was not valid. But Eli Lilly, who has an antibody therapy recently authorized for use against omicron by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said the new treatment works against BA.2.
virologist at the University of Massachusetts Chan School of Medicine in Worcester, Dr. “There are a lot of new mutations in BA.2 that no one has tested,” says Jeremy Luban in his Nature article. Like previous variants and subvariants, scientists need to observe the virus in the real world to determine how important these mutations are. Currently, WHO still tracks BA.2 as a sub-variant of the original omicron variant.
Like the original omicron, BA.2 makes our vaccines less protective against infection, but there is currently no data to suggest that we are worse off with BA.2. It is also too soon to give definitive answers about the possibility of someone being reinfected with COVID-19 caused by the omicron variant.
Troels Lillebaek, a molecular epidemiologist at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen and chairman of Denmark’s Risk Assessment Committee for SARS-CoV-2 Variants, told Nature, “Without the protection, it would be a surprise, and I think it’s unlikely. not,” he said, adding: “We will know for sure in a few weeks.”
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