SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – The BA.5 subvariant is only making up a smaller percentage of daily COVID-19 cases in the United States and this could be signaling an uptick in cases caused by the newer variants.
For more, stream KCBS Radio now.
But some of these new variants are actually descendants of BA.5, and were lumped in with BA.5 for some time up until recently as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recategorized things.
These include ones like BQ.1.1 and BF.7, which are BA.5 offshoots and used to be counted with BA.5.
"They're becoming more common," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security on KCBS Radio's "Ask an Expert" with Melissa Culross on Monday. "They seem to have all kind of centered on a cluster of mutations that allow them to be more immune-evasive."
They are more immune-evasive than other iterations of the virus that have come before, and are better able to evade the immunity protections we have come to rely on, like vaccines or previous infections.
But that doesn't necessarily mean these new subvariants will cause severe disease, just that they are better able to cause infection.
The virus mutates faster than health experts can track, according to Adalja.
"It's always mutating, that's what viruses do," he said. "And we are going to continue to be faced with a litany of new variants."
"50 years from now, there will be new variants of COVID-19," he said. "It's not static. Life is not static."
The new boosters that have come out this fall will still be able to protect against serious illness, hospitalization and death, which they are designed to do.
"But there are concerns that they may not hold up so well against the BA.5 and actually there's a BA.2 option out there as well as the original BA.5," said Adalja.
The vaccine boosters are not designed to prevent infection from the virus, which people often forget.
"People have always been sort of mixed and muddled on what these boosters are meant to do," he said.
People should be going out and getting the new booster as soon as they can.
Further down the line, there will likely be a discussion over reformulating the vaccine altogether to take into account these new variants for people who have not even had their first dose, according to Adalja.
But that conversation has not yet happened.
DOWNLOAD the Audacy App
SIGN UP and follow KCBS Radio
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Related
