But suddenly, many people who have recovered from Covid-19 in March or April Found myself exhausted, coughing and staring at two red lines in a quick test. How will this happen again – and soon?
The culprit this time is another offshoot of Omicron, BA.5. There are three major mutations in the barrier protein that both infect our cells and are more adept at slipping through our immune defenses.
Laboratory studies of antibodies from the blood of people who have recently been vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19 have looked at how well they are resistant to BA.5 and how this variant can be. beat them Therefore, those who have recently contracted the coronavirus in winter or spring may be at risk of contracting the virus again.
“We do not know about the clinical severity of BA.4 and BA.5 compared to our other Omicron variants,” CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said at a White House Covid-19 Response Team briefing. on tuesday “But we know it can be more contagious and evade more immunity. Previously infected people, even with BA.1 and BA.2, were more at risk for BA.4 or BA.5.”
The ‘filled’ wave
As a result, we get sick in a herd. As Americans more rapidly switch to home testing. Official number of patients It now accounts for about 110,000 new cases per day, reflecting only a fraction of the real burden of disease.
“We estimate that for every reported case, there will be seven unreported cases,” Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics science at the University of Washington Institute for Health Measurement and Evaluation, wrote in an email.
Other experts It is thought that the waves may be 10 times higher than reported.
“We are considering potentially close to a million new cases a day,” Dr Peter Hotez told CNN on Monday. “This is the full BA.5 wave we are experiencing this summer. In fact, in the southern states it looks even worse. Same as 2020, same as 2021,” said Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston
That puts us in the range of cases reported during the first Omicron wave in January. Remember when it seemed like everyone everywhere was sick at the same time? That’s the situation in the US again.
It might not seem like a big deal. This is because better vaccines and treatments have greatly reduced the risk of death from COVID-19. However, each day, about 300 to 350 people die from COVID-19 on average, which is enough to fill a passenger plane. big size
“That is unacceptable. It’s too high,” Dr Ashish Jha, the White House’s Covid-19 response team coordinator, said at a briefing Tuesday.
Daily hospitalizations are also increasing in the United States. Patients requiring intensive care increased by about 23% over the past two weeks. And other countries are also experiencing BA.5 waves.
“I am concerned that the number of people infected with COVID-19 still rising Puts pressure on protracted health systems and health workers. I am also concerned about the rising mortality trend,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news conference on Tuesday. Following the agency’s decision to maintain a state of emergency declaration for Covid-19
He said the pandemic was “Nowhere near all”
What’s at stake with a continuous spread?
There are also some serious health risks to consider. Recent pre-print studies This compares the health of people who have been infected with COVID-19. at least once found that the risk of new health problems and sometimes may be longer with each subsequent infection. This indicates that re-infection is not necessarily benign.
Although vaccination reduces the risk of contracting COVID-19 for a long time, a number of people may develop chronic symptoms after a serious infection.
That’s another reason why the high number of Covid-19 cases is a big deal. Because the virus continues to spread wildly. It therefore has the potential to mutate all forms to make itself more compact and infective. It’s working faster than we can replace vaccines. keeping us stuck in a time of the covid-wash-repeated pandemic.
On Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has pleaded with Americans to use all available tools to stop the spread of the virus. This includes masking, ventilation, and social distancing.
“We need to keep virus levels as low as possible. And that’s our best defense. If the virus does not replicate and spread strongly Will make it less likely to have a mutation. which will make the mutation less The opportunity to develop another variable,” Fauci said at a news briefing.
In fact, this is already happening.
Meet BA 2.75
Despite the US agreement with BA.5, a variety of predators around the world are closely watching another Omicron descendant. BA.2.75 has been detected in approximately 10 countries, including the United States. And it seems to be growing fast in India.
BA.2.75 has nine changes in the thorn region that distinguish it from BA.2 and approximately 11 changes compared to BA.5, according to Tom Peacock, a virologist at Imperial College London.
Many of the mutations in BA.2.75 are in the region of a barrier protein known to be important for antibodies to bind to stop the virus, said Ulrich Elling, a scientist at the Austrian Academy of Sciences who has been investigating the coronavirus strain for that country. .
There is little data to go on: it is unknown, for example, how BA.2.75 might compete with BA.5 or cause serious illness? But experts say it has all the properties of a variable that can go global.
Shishi Luo, deputy director of Bioinformatics and Infectious Diseases at Helix Labs, who decrypts virus samples for the CDC and other customers, said: “It’s already spread to many countries. So we know it has some power.”
Because of this, and because of the changes in the region of the virus our antibodies look for to stop it. “We knew ahead of time that this virus would cause some problems,” Luo said.
from what we know now She expects this sub-variable could drive the Covid-19 wave in the United States to lessen.
In the meantime, Ja said people should be given the best available drugs to keep their immunity as strong as possible. U.S. health officials emphasize that those currently promoted will still be able to receive updated shots this fall, which include BA.4 and BA.5 strains.
Jha specifically urged Americans over 50 that “If you haven’t been vaccinated this year. Go get vaccinated now. It might save your life,” he said.