A new Omicron subvariant is catching the attention of health experts across the world, but Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy Director Dr. Michael Osterholm at the University of Minnesota says it's too early to know exactly what impact the BA.2.75 variant will have.
"The three most important words I have in my COVID vocabulary are, 'I don't know,'" Osterholm said on Monday. "No one knows what BA.2.75 means in terms of all the variants and subvariants."
BA.2.75 is rapidly becoming the dominant variant and India. 10 other countries including the United States have also reported cases.
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Osterholm added that one worry is that BA.2.75 could overtake the dominate BA.5 Omicron subvariant, which has shown to be immune evasive, able to get around immunity from vaccines and previous infection.
"BA.5 is rapidly becoming the most dominant subvariant around the world, At this point when you think about it from a microbial evolutionary standpoint, the weaker one isn't going to win out. The stronger one is and at this point, the stronger one is one that can evade immune protection."
When it comes to the actual amount of COVID-19 cases reported, Osterholm compared the numbers to "flying blind" based on the fact fewer people are taking PCR tests. He said many of the at-home tests lack the ability to pick-up the infection.
"You may test yourself and find that you're negative thinking you're not infected, but you really are," he said. "And these at-home test results don't get reported. So we don't have a very good handle on it right now."
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