>SARS-CoV-2 is a protean virus. It seems designed to reinfect a previously infected host, changing its outer coat as well as some of its properties.
>We all remember Omicron and how it swept the world that had already experienced several waves of Covid cases. There were so many changes in the outer spike protein of Omicron that previous infections did little to protect from new infections. How much previous infection protects from disease still remains in question.
>BA.2… contained 54 amino acid mutations from the original Wuhan virus. The cause for concern with BA.2.86 is that it contains 41 amino acid mutations on top of the BA.2 mutations, totaling 95 mutations from the Wuhan virus.
>BA.2.86 is likely a common descendant of one of the original Omicron variants, BA.2, [?and a more recent variant, XBB?]. In the spike protein of BA.2.86, we see 60 amino acid mutations, including substitutions and deletions. For context, the Alpha variant, which fueled the second-largest surge of cases in the United States behind the initial Omicron surge, contained just ten spike amino acid mutations. Dr. Eric Topol describes BA.2.86 as "Omicron Squared."
>…the updated Covid vaccine set to be released this fall is designed to protect against the XBB.1.5 variant, but not BA.2.86. The hope is that the vaccine will protect against BA.2.86 should it widely circulate, but it would be unsurprising if the variant evaded booster protection, given the degree to which BA.2.86 is mutated in the spike is extreme.
With widespread seeding across effectively the entire population of the planet including immunocompromised (current & future) patients, we are just guaranteeing that we'll have new dangerous variants.
There's no way to chase these variants without #ZeroCovid .
@mathew1927@novid yep. And the kicker? I'll wager as bad as the wave ends up seeming, it won't seem as bad as previous waves. Why? Because with more immunodeficiency comes more sneaky infections; more carriers, fewer/less symptoms. It'll hit everyone and many won't even know. Afterwards, though, there'll be a massive uptick in all manner of other viral and fungal infections, as well as organ failure, cardiovascular dysfunction, autoimmunity, etc...
They better hurry up and bring back masks and other NPIs, so they'll have something to blame it on -- and to compete with the cries of "it's the vax! 🤪".
There may or may not be as many deaths in the acute phases [depends on how many are weakened from the previous waves, etc -- remember we killed off several million already, the survivors may need to be weakened some more to succumb in the acute phase]
What we will see is increased deaths/disability all around that will be attributed to #AnythingButCovid
"No, BA.2.86 is NOT “likely a common descendant of one of the original Omicron variants, BA.2, and a more recent variant, XBB.”. Nothing to share with XBB.*."
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