Why the new Omicron variant is “the worst” version of the virus

Two new Omicron variants are currently leading infections in the US, and one of them is being dubbed “the worst version of the virus” scientists have seen.

The new variants are Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, with the latter putting scientists on high alert due to its ability to evade immunity.

Photo by Emmanuel Ikwuegbu via Unsplash

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Fortune wrote about BA.5 and picked up a newsletter from Dr. Eric Topol up. “It takes the already extensive immune escape to the next level and, as a function of this, enhanced transmissibility,” he wrote. Topol is a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research.

“You could say it’s not that bad because there hasn’t been a significant increase in hospitalizations and deaths like we’ve seen with Omicron, but that’s only because we’ve had such a noticeable adverse effect from Omicron, for them there is at least some cross-immunity,” he wrote, referring to the current Covid numbers being reported across the country.

According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), Omicron variants B.4 and B.5 are said to have caused 52% of Covid infections in the past week. While it’s difficult to predict the variant’s response to vaccines, experts believe vaccinated individuals are likely to see a fall in protection greater than previous Omicron variants.

When discussing variant B.5, it is not known how vaccines behave against it.

B.4 and B.5 are rising in places around the world, but you wouldn’t know because they occur at the same time as earlier variants are falling. This gives the impression that the wave is stabilizing rather than one variant replacing the other.

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New Omicron variants show symptoms similar to the original Omicron strain. These include fever, loss of smell, and fatigue, with less focus on respiratory complications. The disease, while still a problem, is not as dangerous as it was in the beginning.