BA.2 subvariant of Omicron may be more severe: Omicron already maor eeffective and evading vaccines and priot infection antibodies

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Thu, 2022-02-17 17:20 — mike kraft

As BA.2 subvariant of Omicron rises, lab studies point to signs of severity | CNN 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. Brenda Goodman CNN

(CNN) -- ...

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.

ALSO SEE: Omicron is TEN TIMES better at punching through Covid vaccines and immunity than Delta - and what that could mean for when the pandemic will end

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....

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