Health
Watching New Omicron variants
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
May 12, 2022 – Omicron continues to spawn and now variants BA.4 and BA.5 pose a frustrating problem.
They just seem to be getting more infectious, the variants discovered in South Africa are sweeping through the US at a rate swifter than that of BA2 and now South African scientists are worried that they may evade natural immunity
Bloomberg reports that In a study carried out by South African scientists blood samples from people infected with omicron but unvaccinated , when tested against BA.4 and BA.5, neutralizing antibodies which fight Covid were eight times lower. In people who contracted omicron and were vaccinated it was three times lower.
The study has not yet been peer reviewed but the researchers say, “The low absolute neutralization levels for BA.4 and BA.5, particularly in the unvaccinated group, are unlikely to protect well against symptomatic infection,”
“This may indicate that… BA.4 and BA.5 have potential to result in a new infection wave.”
It is bad news for everyone that’s countries struggle to move towards normalcy and mask mandates drop worldwide.
Since the onset of BA.4 and BA.5 South Africa’s case count has surged from 581 cases and a positivity rate of 4.5% on March 28 to 4683 cases by May 1st.