Rising Omicron Subvariant Could Lead To Severe Cases Per New Lab Experiments

The world is slowly getting back on its feet again with the latest COVID-19 Omicron threat seemingly under control. However, it remains that like previous variants, there is still a cause for concern on mutations. The latest one is said to be the BA.2 virus.

Scientists continue to do their part in studying these variants to make sure that they are properly addressed. But according to lab experiments done in Japan, the initial round of findings may not be comforting.

In a report by CNN, it was mentioned how the BA.2 virus contains features that make it capable of causing serious illness similar to what older variants of COVID-19 such as the Delta variant brought.

Worse, the new variant may cause problems even for vaccinated people. From the studies, it appears the BA.2 virus has the capability of escaping the immunity created by vaccines.

However, booster shots could provide added protection making illness after infection about 74% less likely.

It would be also good to note that BA.2 is also resistant to some treatments, including sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody that's currently being used against Omicron.

The findings were shared on a preprint study on the bio Rxiv server before peer 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," Dr. Daniel Rhoads, section head of microbiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. Rhoads reviewed the study stated. He was however not involved in the research.

Kei Sato, a researcher at the University of Tokyo who conducted the study, explains however that these findings prove that BA.2 should not be considered a type of Omicron and that it needs to be more closely monitored.

"Establishing a method to detect BA.2 specifically would be the first thing,” Sato said. "It looks like we might be looking at a new Greek letter here," he added.