Explainer: Do I have to worry about COVID again?

Sep 7 (Reuters) – New data from Moderna scientists and vaccine makers (RNAM.O) and pfizer (PFE.N)/BioNTech (22UAy.DE) suggests that a newer, highly mutated variant of the virus that causes COVID-19 is not as alarming as some experts feared when it was first detected several weeks ago.

Dubbed “Pirola” on social media, the Omicron BA.2.86 subvariant is being tracked by both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

What’s new about COVID?

COVID infections and hospitalizations have increased in the US, Europe and Asia, but are well below previous peaks. The weekly growth rate of hospitalizations in the United States slowed for three consecutive weeks in August, according to CDC data for the week ending August 26.

As of August 30, The CDC said the variant BA.2.86 It has been detected in at least four US states in people or wastewater. Delaware said Tuesday had detected a BA.2.86 infection in a hospital. He The WHO has reported finding BA.2.86 in at least six countries.

According to CDC dataA descendant of the Omicron lineage dubbed “Eris” on social media that originally emerged in November 2021, the EG.5 subvariant accounts for about one-fifth of current US COVID cases.

A variant nicknamed “Fornax”, officially FL.1.5.1, is next in importance with 14.5% of US infections and accounts for a growing proportion of East Coast COVID cases. A wide range of other variants account for a minor proportion of the total: BA.2.86 currently accounts for less than 1%.

Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, believes that FL.1.5.1 will become the predominant COVID variant in the coming months, but he does not expect a wave of infection like the one powered by Omicron last time. winter.

Dowdy suggested that the current increase in cases may be because immunity to vaccination and infection has partly disappeared since the last increase.

What do scientists say about BA.2.86?

Scientists have been keeping an eye on BA.2.86 because it carries more than 35 mutations in key portions of the virus compared to XBB.1.5, the dominant variant for most of 2023.

The dramatic changes, coupled with the genetic change seen in the Omicron variant compared to its Delta predecessor, raised concerns that the new variant could cause a major surge.

Experiments testing versions of the virus at two independent U.S. labs suggest that’s unlikely, said Dr. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, whose lab ran one. of the studies.

His team tested lab-made versions of the virus in vaccinated or previously infected people and found that antibodies against the variant were comparable to or slightly higher than those of currently circulating variants.

Experiments conducted in the laboratory of Dr. David Ho at Columbia University, as well as by teams in Sweden and China, yielded similar results.

Will the vaccines protect against new variants?

Barouch’s studies also suggested that the newly updated vaccines will boost antibody responses “to some degree” against all currently circulating variants, including BA.2.86.

Moderna said Wednesday Clinical data showed that its revamped COVID vaccine generated a nearly nine-fold increase in human antibodies that can neutralize BA.2.86.

Pfizer said on Wednesday that its updated COVID vaccine showed neutralizing activity against BA.2.86 and EG.5 in studies conducted in mice.

The updated vaccines are being reviewed by the US Food and Drug Administration and are expected to be available this month.

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