Concerns about the highly evolved omicron subvariant BA.2.86 come as the first group of preliminary studies on the virus suggest it may not be as immune-evasive or dangerous as its numerous mutations suggest. It’s starting to soften.
However, this good news is tempered by the latest COVID-19 data, which shows increased hospitalization rates, emergency department visits, and mortality rates, all linked to the currently prevalent series of omicron subtypes. It is caused by a mutant. In the US, EG.5, FL.1.5.1, and XBB.1.16.6 lead the way. Although EG.5 is on the rise, there is no single variant that is predominant worldwide.
Hospitalizations in the United States have increased by about 16% since last week, and deaths have increased by about 18% in that time.The test positivity rate is also steepening, according to Latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Although the number of people infected with COVID-19 remains low compared to other waves of infection, surveillance and testing systems have declined to alarming levels, potentially underestimating the true burden of the disease. It means high quality. And the current wave comes ahead of the arrival of autumn boosters, raising concerns for those most vulnerable to the virus.
“one of [the World Health Organization’s] “The biggest concern is the low level of people at risk who have recently received a COVID-19 vaccine,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Wednesday. “Our message is: Get a booster shot. That means we shouldn’t wait.” If you recommend it. ”
According to a report from NBC News, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration could approve fall booster shots as early as this Friday.However, the timeline could slide to early next week. The CDC is expected to approve the shot shortly thereafter.
Data so far suggests that these fall boosters designed to target XBB.1.5 are effective against the current major variants, namely EG.5 and FL.1.5.1. doing.in Wednesday’s press releaseAccording to Moderna, the booster is also effective against BA.2.86. According to preliminary clinical trial data, the vaccine increased his neutralizing antibodies against BA.2.86 by 8.7 times.
Experts are still unsure how BA.2.86 will unfold, whether it will take over, disappear, or evolve further into nightmarish variants. The alarming number of variants now in existence and the seemingly sudden international spread raised alarm last month. But weeks later, mutated ohmicron submutants remain a rare find. At the time of publication, the following researchers: BA.2.86 Only 12 countries have reported only 64 genome sequences Among the thousands of SARS-CoV-2 sequences submitted from around the world every week. Meanwhile, about 30 per cent of recently submitted sequences are EG.5, WHO’s COVID-19 technical lead Maria van Kerkhove said on Wednesday.
BA.2.86 “doesn’t outweigh any other variants that we’re seeing or circulating at the moment, and that’s what we’re looking at,” Van Kerkhove said.
Latest data
Three new studies published in recent days (all preprints that have not been peer-reviewed) may help explain why the variant has largely remained on the sidelines. Taken together, these studies suggest that BA.2.86 may not be as capable of infecting human cells as other currently circulating subvariants; This suggests that the level of immunity is not sufficient to overcome it. Preliminary data is encouraging, but researchers warn that BA.2.86 may continue to evolve and could have dodged a bullet as coronavirus surveillance systems have been significantly degraded. are doing.
As one of the pre-print studies, Chinese researchers found that BA.2.86 was less efficient at infecting cells in the lab compared to other circulating omicron subvariants, namely XBB.1.5 and EG.5. did. “In summary, BA.2.86 appears to have acquired greater immune evasion in exchange for its infectivity during long-term host virus evolution,” the researchers concluded. However, they warned that “great care must be taken to monitor for additional mutations that may increase the transmissibility of BA.2.86.”
Preprint study by Swedish researchersMeanwhile, we investigated how well serum from blood donors could neutralize BA.2.86 in comparison to XBB.1.5 and BA.2 (the Oomicron subvariant, which is a derivative of BA.2.86). We observed reduced levels of neutralization against BA.2.86 compared to other variants, but it was not as severe as initially feared. One analysis that looked at the most recent serum samples taken while the XBB variant was circulating found that neutralizing antibody levels against BA.2.86 were only modest compared to the levels seen against his XBB.1.5. , but was still quite strong. The small decrease for BA.2.86 compares to the extreme immune evasion seen when the original omicron subvariant arose in the context of the delta subvariant, leading to a large wave of infection in early 2022. It looks inferior.
Third preprint studyA study led by Boston researchers reached similar conclusions to the Swedish study. The US-based group looked at neutralizing antibody responses in 66 people (44 who received a bivalent booster in the last year and 22 who did not). Overall, the levels of neutralizing antibodies against BA.2.86 were significantly lower than those against BA.2.86. BA.2, but has been seen against a number of other circulating ohmicron subvariants, namely XBB.1.5, XBB.1.16, EG.5, EG.5.1, and FL.1.5.1. It was “same or slightly higher” than the previous one.
in Post to XBen Murrell, senior author of the Swedish study and researcher at Karolinska Institutet, concluded from the data:[O]Your antibodies don’t seem to be completely ineffective against [BA.2.86]” But he had a word of caution for the future: “But the fact that another Omicron-like emergence event occurred, with its long unobserved divergence, [of evolution] And the ensuing epidemic should warn us not to abandon our genomic surveillance infrastructure. ”