Is the COVID-19 Pandemic Getting Over Soon? Omicron BA.2 Variant Poses Threat

Some states have dropped their respective mandates as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations decline. However, experts have another take with the COVID-19 Omicron variant introducing another sub-lineage called Omicron BA.2.

Infectious disease experts expressed worry about COVID-19 Omicron variant's more contagious version as it continues to spread throughout the United States, according to a Deseret News report.

The spread of the Omicron BA.2 has been seen to be slow and steady as COVID-19 cases driven by the main Omicron variant continue to drop.

New England Complex Systems Institute President, Yaneer Bar-Yam, tweeted that the BA.2 subvariant is more vaccine evading, resistant to BA.1 induced immunity, and causes more rapid and more extensive lung damage when seen in hamsters.

Physician-scientist Eric Topol said "more reassuring evidence" from South Africa is that the Omicron BA.2 is associated with an increase in clinical severity compared to its original variant.

Nathan Grubaugh, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, said that a lot of them were assuming that the BA.2 was going to quickly take off in the U.S., just like in Europe.

Grubaugh said that it might become the new dominant variant.

Omicron BA.2

The virus is reported to be 30 percent more easily to spread, according to an NPR report.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted that Omicron BA.2 has now been found from coast to coast and accounts for around 3.9 percent of all-new infections nationally.

Samuel Scarpino, the manager director of pathogen surveillance at the Rockefeller Foundation, said that if the variant doubles again to eight percent, it would mean that the U.S. is into the exponential growth phase.

Scarpino added that the U.S. may be staring at another wave of COVID-19 in the U.S.

The World Health Organization has determined that the strain should be considered a variant of concern and be monitored by public health authorities.

The WHO added that it will continue to closely look at the BA.2 to know whether it causes more severe disease, according to a Fox News report.

Omicron BA.2 variant has a lot of mutation and can appear like a Delta infection as it lacks a genetic quirk of the original Omicron variant.

It has been found in more than 80 countries, with 50 U.S. states reporting cases infected with BA.2.

Dr. Jeremy Luban, a virologist at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, noted that there might be several people getting to end up on respirators and dying due to the BA.2.

COVID-19 in The U.S.

New cases plummet 90 percent from a pandemic record set just five weeks ago with U.S. health officials and state leaders announce changes in their respective mask mandates.

Hospitalizations have also fallen significantly. Data from the Department of Health and Human Services note 66,000 patients in U.S. hospitals, which is a decrease from the January 20 record of 159,000 patients.

Jeff Zients, White House COVID response coordinator, said that they are encouraged by the dramatic declines in cases and hospitalizations nationwide, CNBC News reported.

Johns Hopkins epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo said that she does not think BA.2 is going to cause a huge jump in cases as what they have seen in winter. However, she noted that it is possible it could drag out the decline.

Nuzzo said that the U.S. has now the ability to focus its response on protecting those who remain vulnerable despite vaccination, particularly people with compromised immune systems.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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