As the omicron wave plateaus, many are breathing a sigh of relief.
Except for health experts, who are looking ahead to the next variant likely to appear on the scene.
Despite the new information each variant provides in helping predict the next one, much is still uncertain about how the COVID-19 virus will continue to mutate.
"The coronavirus keeps throwing us wildcards," said Dr. Warner Greene, Director of the Gladstone Center for HIV Cure Research and a professor of medicine, microbiology and immunology at UCSF, on KCBS Radio's "Ask an Expert" with Holly Quan and Eric Thomas on Monday.
Hospitalization has been at the highest its ever been over the last two or three weeks, because so many more people have been getting infected with omicron, which is much more transmissible than previous variants.
Although hospitalizations are starting to recede in the United States, which is good news, deaths are still rising, at about 2,200 to 2,500 per day, said Greene.
Now, on top of omicron, there's now "what’s called the stealth omicron, which is slightly more infectious than the original omicron," he said. It's called stealth because this particular variant is not as easily trackable as previous variants.
Deeper sequencing is needed to identify this new form of the omicron variant.
Fortunately for the Bay Area at least, where vaccination rates are high, future variants are unlikely to have as significant an impact.
Except for a "variant of high consequence," said Greene. "Which would be a variant that would elude our vaccines."
So far, such a variant has not emerged, he said. "What we are seeing is the steady emergence of variants that have more ability to elude the immune response."
Omicron and delta are these types of variants. Essentially, the virus is learning how to replicate in whatever environment it finds itself in, said Greene.
And while both immunizations and infections increase, "the virus is now facing a much more formidable immune wall of protection," he said. This means the virus is going to try to adapt, in order to get past that more formidable wall.
But compared to other viruses, like HIV, COVID-19 is slower to mutate than others.
Related
