Just as we’re finally getting some good news about omicron, scientists are investigating what some are calling a “stealth variant”: COVID variant BA.2.
The BA.2 variant is technically a sub-variant of omicron, which is scientifically known as BA.1. Think of it like a spinoff of the original—different but not totally new. The biggest difference between the omicron and BA.2 are changes on the spike protein, Theodora Hatziioannou, Ph.D., an associate professor of virology at Rockefeller University, told the Wall Street Journal. That’s the part of the virus that helps it bind to human cells, as SELF previously reported, and is targeted by the coronavirus vaccine. There are around 20 spike protein differences between BA.1 and BA.2.
The sub-variants emerged around the same time—BA.2 was first discovered in mid-November, according to CNN—but scientists are talking about BA.2 now because of how widespread it’s become. Since being identified, BA.2 has been found in 49 countries, including the U.S. where it makes up about 1% of all cases, and is now the dominant driver of COVID cases in some countries including India, CNN reported. Some experts are referring to BA.2 as the “stealth variant” of omicron because of the way it presents in lab tests, specifically in a signature known as the s-gene target failure, CNN explains. In layman’s terms, this means BA.2 can often initially look like other variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
So, does the “stealth” nature of omicron 2.0 make it more dangerous? It’s early, and scientists still have a lot to learn about BA.2. Early evidence from Denmark, where BA.2 currently accounts for about half of cases, suggests that it may be slightly more contagious than omicron BA.1. “Preliminary calculations indicate that BA.2 is effectively well over one and a half times more contagious than BA.1,” Denmark’s Serum Institute reported this week, per the WSJ. But so far, health experts say there doesn’t appear to be any cause for panic, thanks to three majorly reassuring pieces of evidence.
First, the mutations that separate COVID variant BA.2 from its cousin don’t appear to make it more likely to cause severe cases that lead to hospitalization and death. Initial data from Denmark’s report found no differences in hospitalizations caused by BA.2 as compared to BA.1, per the WSJ.
Secondly, there’s evidence that the COVID vaccine is just as effective against BA.2. as it is against BA.1. A report published by the UK Health Security Agency this week, found that vaccines were actually slightly more effective at protecting against symptomatic cases of BA.2—an initial dose (two shots) plus booster offered about 70% protection against BA.2 as compared to 63% protection against BA.1. (In terms of natural COVID immunity, if you’ve had the BA.1 version of omicron, you likely have some immunity to BA.2, Dr. Hatziioannou, told the WSJ.)
And finally, COVID tests appear to be just as effective at detecting the presence of BA.2. “Both FDA-approved lab-based and at-home tests should detect this lineage, as well as the other omicron [sublineage], BA.1,” Ramon Lorenzo-Redondo, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine for infectious diseases at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told CNN. (As SELF previously reported, research suggests rapid antigen home tests are effective at detecting omicron infections. But since rapid tests are less sensitive than PCR tests, they may not catch an infection quite as early. If you know you’ve been exposed to omicron, it’s best to be extra cautious and wear a mask around others even if you get a negative rapid test result.)
BA.2 might not be any more destructive than the original omicron variant but it’s a poignant reminder that the pandemic isn’t over and new variants of the coronavirus can still emerge. “I’d be very surprised, with the current state of the global population in terms of immune status, if we didn’t see more variants emerge,” Angela Rasmussen, Ph.D., a virologist with the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan, told CNN. In other words, it’s still important to get vaccinated, get boosted, and wear a mask.
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