More contagious Omicron sub-variant makes up over a tenth of COVID variants in U.S. - CDC

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The BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron is estimated to make up nearly 12% of all COVID-19 variants circulating in the U.S., the latest genomic surveillance data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicate.

Last month the World Health Organization (WHO) cited early data to warn that BA.2 is more transmissible than the original BA.1 sub-variant of Omicron.

Based on data from South Africa, Dr. John Nkengasong, the head of Africa's top public health body, said last month that BA.2 does not appear to cause more severe disease than the original BA.1 sub-variant.

BA.1.1, a second-generation sub-lineage of the Omicron variant, currently accounts for ~74% of sequenced cases, the CDC data for the week ending Mar. 05, indicate.

Recent studies indicated that BA.2 is resistant to nearly all monoclonal antibodies developed for COVID-19, including sotrovimab from GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE:GSK) and Vir Biotechnology (NASDAQ:VIR) which was earlier thought to be effective against the original Omicron variant.

In late February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned against the use of sotrovimab in places with COVID-19 variants that are not suspectable to the drug.

Comments

[tlapp]

I have far more fear of the government power grab than the virus.

[arcticfoxman]

Miles behind. The BA3 variant is already evident and will very soon take over just as BA.2 became 100% of cases in places like Denmark.
Anyone believing the PR crap that any of the trial vaccines work in any way is delusional. The S Protein is a complex mutation of previous variants & between each notable variant there's several sequences. Even if the mRNA vaccines were safe and easy to alter they haven't yet made one that's successful against any SARS virus including Covid-19 and they aren't going to, any more than they'll cure the common cold.. which right now is nastier than the latest variant of Covid.

[Finding Your Retirement]

should we be afraid of the bug or nuclear war? The govt needs to tell me what to fear

[arcticfoxman]

@finding Your Retirement . Everything, the Govt want us to fear Everything. As 90% of the public are poorly educated & easily afeared, that's enough.

[cdraughon]

WTF? I thought Covid was over.

[arcticfoxman]

@cdraughon . It's only over medically and scientifically. It'll never be over politically as a scam & tool towards a Totalitarian wet dream.

[Golfsohard]

CDC lost all credibility months ago

[arcticfoxman]

@Golfsohard . They did tell us in July that their trial data showed the V'd caught & spread Covid-19 the same as the unV'd. In fact slightly easier and with a slightly higher viral load. Trouble is it wasn't covered by the MSM even though the CDC made the report availablein the publicdomain.
( in their WMMR from July)

[longmoneyvinz]

its war time, why do we need still this bs?

[Fangorn]

@quaresma7 becuase they need it in the "back pocket" for the upcoming November elections they intend fiddling royally!

[milehr]

@quaresma7 Just in case the war ends too soon.

[dougdigi]

@Fangorn who's "they"?