Omikron variant BA. 2.75, which has been dubbed “Centaurus,” worries virologists. It has so far been discovered in India, the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Germany and Canada, among other countries, writes Watchman. ‘Centaurus’ should have been able to spread faster than the other omicron variants, and soon took over the form of the BA-dominant variant. 2, which has dominated many countries.
– New variants always spread faster when you grab them, so there’s nothing weird about that. If he wasn’t already in Norway, we might see him every moment, says Gunvig Grodeland, a researcher in vaccine development and immunology at the University of Oslo.
– What we know about this is that it has a large number of mutations, especially in the area where the antibodies stick that can prevent the virus from entering our cells. Just as with previous omicron variants, there is no reason to expect that your antibodies – either after vaccination or in a previous infection – will specifically protect you from this. So you can get infected again, says Grødeland.
FHI informs Dagsavisen that BA. 2.75 Not yet discovered in Norway.
We expect to see individual cases in the coming weeks. This is a variant that we are particularly aware of because it contains several mutations that may have an increased ability to evade immunity from previous vaccines and infections, FHI senior advisor Torstein Aune wrote in an email.
[ FHI: Derfor øker smitten og koronadødsfallene ]
Vaccines lose their effect against infection
Gunnveig Grødeland says vaccines no longer protect against infection or mild disease. So one should expect to be able to get injured over and over again.
It is important to understand how vaccines work, because what they do not do is protect against infection and mild illness. They don’t do that anymore, and they haven’t in a while. Vaccines are based on the Wuhan variant, and there is a significant difference from the new variants that vaccines no longer take. But protection from serious diseases remains intact. Grødeland says it shows all the data we have.
– How can they still protect against dangerous diseases, then?
In addition to these neutralizing antibodies that can block the virus, important antibodies are formed against other parts of the virus and T cells. The common denominator is that they cannot prevent infection, but these antibodies, for example, can mark the virus so that other immune cells recognize the virus, and can clear it away from the body more quickly. T cells recognize and remove virus infected cells in our body. This prevents serious illness, but these immune responses will not prevent the virus from entering or make us mildly ill.
Also, protection from infection is not the most important, but protection against serious diseases that applies, and there is protection from previous vaccines and diseases is still good, Grodland adds.
She says it’s important that the elderly and in high-risk groups take the fourth dose, because it is first and foremost those who have a high risk of developing serious illness. This will reduce the likelihood of an individual being infected, but it will also enable the health service to deal with whatever may come from a serious illness.
[ Avviklet koronatesting: – Vi har likevel ganske god oversikt ]
No more lethal
Grødeland stresses, however, that there is no reason to believe that this new alternative is any more serious than the previous one.
I don’t think we should spend a lot of energy on the idea of having any of these variables, because injury is the normal situation. The important thing is to protect those at high risk.
Could there be a more deadly type?
– No, unlike influenza, the genetic material of SARS-CoV-2 is single chain. So we can’t have the same situation we can get with influenza where all eight strands of genetic material can suddenly be mixed together into a new type of influenza virus. And now we have good basic protection against SARS-CoV-2. If it gets more deadly, it’s because a completely new type of SARS, like SARS-CoV-3, comes from bats or something similar. The Can It does happen, Grodland says, but that’s unlikely.
[ EU vil gi ny dose til alle over 60 år: – En ny smittebølge er på vei ]
Why do mutations occur?
There are many different variants because this is an RNA virus, just like the influenza virus. Each time the virus replicates, there is a certain possibility that transcription errors will occur in the genetic material. And if those transcription errors can be translated into a “difference” that gives the virus a slight advantage, then you get a new variant that takes over, spreads and starts to take over, says Grødeland.
A virus can do two things: either become more contagious, or change so that the immune responses that form in the population do not hinder you. The omikron variants have done both things. They both became more contagious, and they changed. Therefore, we can get infected over and over again, says Grudeland.
When asked how long we can imagine living with corona in society, Grudeland replied:
We must live with this for as long as the flu, for the foreseeable future.
You can see an increase in infection and hospitalization
FHI says they don’t know if the new alternative is more dangerous than BA. 5, but it is afraid to affect the population.
The population is increasingly becoming immune to SARS-CoV2 and in India where BA is present. 2.75 spread, they didn’t have much BA. 5 that we have in Norway, how about BA. 2.75 will act in relation to BA. 5 In Norway we don’t know much about it yet, Torstein Onn wrote in an email.
– The individual cases of BA 2.75 that we expect to see in Norway in the coming weeks may begin to spread to the population with the potential for coronary heart disease and hospitalization to increase in Norway as well, Aune wrote.
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