Say Hello to the new Covid variant, Stealth BA.2

[kenny]

Oh Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Scientists monitoring new omicron subvariant BA.2

BA.2 numbers around the world are rising.

abcnews.go.com

 

[PinkAndBlueBling]

MAKE IT STOP!!!!!!!

 

[Calliecake]

Reading your thread title my first thought was exactly the same as yours Kenny.

 

[Matata]

Mother nature just keeps slappin' us upside our heads.

A friend of mine just came down with covid -- first person I know who got it. Her husband has it also. Both are vaxxed and got their boosters last week. Her hubs is morbidly obese, on blood thinners, and has atrial fibrillation for which he was supposed to have surgery this week.

 

[dk168]

Learning to live with Covid nowadays.

DK

 

[AprilBaby]

 

[missy]

The omicron variant caused less severe illness in hospitalized patients than previous versions of the virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. Researchers found that omicron patients had shorter hospital stays than those infected with delta and other variants, and less frequently needed intensive care. But omicron's extreme transmissibility continues to devastate the nation on a broader scale. The average daily death toll reached 2,230 on Tuesday, the highest seven-day death average since last February, before vaccines were widely available.


The World Health Organization is investigating a new version of omicron that has recently cropped up in parts of Europe or Asia. There's no evidence that the new pathogen, known as BA. 2, spreads faster, causes more severe illness or evades immunity better than the original. But it has already become the dominant form of the virus in Denmark. At least three cases have been detected in the United States at Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas. Scientists are paying close attention because so little is known about it.

Although current booster shots have been shown to prevent severe disease from omicron, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech have begun testing a new dose tailored to fight the variant. The highly anticipated trial will look at the effectiveness of the omicron-specific shot in about 1,400 people ages 18 to 55, all with varying vaccination statuses. Results are expected in the first half of the year.

Two years into the pandemic, the global response to the coronavirus is still lopsided, with wealthy countries receiving the lion's share of vaccine doses administered to date. A chorus of administration officials, public health experts and Democratic lawmakers say the explosion of omicron cases highlights the gaps in the U.S. government's approach to vaccine inequity and other problems that have left low-income nations vulnerable to the virus. Without a more aggressive global vaccination campaign, some say, another new variant could wreak havoc on us again.

Still, the WHO struck a hopeful note this week as it marked the end of the pandemic's second year. The organization's European chief said Monday that the pandemic was “entering a new phase" — far from over but perhaps stabilizing. In the United States, top federal infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci said it was too early to tell whether the coronavirus was becoming endemic, saying another new variant could upend progress.

Long covid remains one of the most confounding issues in the pandemic. On Tuesday, two congressional Democrats asked the CDC to release data on the number of Americans who suffer from lasting covid-19 symptoms, with breakdowns by race, gender and age. The lawmakers cited research indicating that women are more vulnerable to long covid than men, andsaid the condition may fall disproportionately hard on minority communities. The CDC tracks data on infections and vaccinations, but detailed information on long covid is hard to come by in part because there's no definitive diagnosis.

Other important news​

The CDC warned against travel to 15 countries and territories where covid-19 risk is “very high.” Five Caribbean islands are on the list.

British police launched a criminal probe of Prime Minister Boris Johnson's parties during pandemic lockdowns. If you’re having trouble keeping up with the saga, here’s a handy guide.

A D.C. bar was repeatedly cited for unmasked employees and failing to check customers' vaccine status. Conservatives are fundraising for it.