What to Know About the New BA.2.75 Omicron Subvariant
Even as BA.4 and BA.5 continue to climb the charts, crowding out earlier Omicron subvariants, scientists are warning about an even newer strain: BA.2.75. Tom Peacock, PhD, a virologist at Imperial College London, tweeted on June 30, “worth keeping a close eye on BA.2.75 — lots of spike mutations, probable second generation variant, apparent rapid […]
Can I Use My Expired At-Home COVID Tests?
People who stocked up on at-home COVID-19 tests during this past winter’s Omicron surge may have expired test kits on hand. But before tossing them in the trash, check to see if their shelf-life has been extended, as the FDA has updated expiration dates for some tests based on new data. Among those tests are […]
Two New Omicron Subvariants Gain Ground in U.S.
Latest Coronavirus News THURSDAY, June 9, 2022 The Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 are spreading rapidly in the United States, but it’s not yet clear if they’ll trigger a new wave of infections or a surge in hospitalizations and deaths, experts say. The subvariants now account for 13% of new coronavirus cases nationwide, compared with […]
BA.2.12.1 Subvariant: Concerning, but No Need to Panic Just Yet
A new Omicron subvariant is rapidly gaining steam in New York and other parts of the Northeast. Experts are urging caution in the face of BA.2.12.1, and say a number of factors are contributing to its rise. But they’re also warning against panic. As of April 20, BA.2.12.1 accounted for more than 75% of sequenced […]
COVID Isn’t Over
A new omicron subvariant, BA.2, is now the dominant COVID strain, however, doctors have seen it function like a bad cold.
Why are people with allergic asthma less susceptible to severe COVID?
The vast majority of people infected with the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 experience mild cold-like symptoms, moderate flu-like symptoms, or no symptoms at all, but the virus is so transmissible that it still spread deep into lung tissue to cause severe disease and death in thousands of people in the United States in 2022 alone. […]
No Underlying Conditions in 63% of Young Kids Hospitalized During Omicron
During the peak of the Omicron wave, weekly hospitalizations for infants and toddlers due to COVID-19 were approximately five times what they were during the peak of the Delta variant, new research from the CDC showed. In the first week of January, COVID-associated hospitalizations in children ages 0-4 years reached 14.5 per 100,000 children, reported […]
COVID Antivirals Appear to Hold Up Against BA.2
While two monoclonal antibody combinations showed neutralizing activity against the Omicron subvariant BA.2, both required substantially higher concentrations to produce a response in patients with COVID-19, Japanese researchers said, while antivirals appeared to be less affected. Casirivimab/imdevimab (REGEN-COV) and tixagevimab/cilgavimab (Evusheld) inhibited BA.2, but the titer of monoclonal antibodies “required for a 50% reduction in […]
Primary Vaccine Series Alone Can’t Stop Omicron Infection
Protection against symptomatic COVID-19 with the Omicron variant shot up after a booster dose among adults who received the two-dose Pfizer vaccine primary series (Comirnaty), though even that faded with time, British researchers found. While protection against symptomatic disease dwindled to next to nothing (8.8%, 95% CI 7.0-10.5) at 25 or more weeks, vaccine effectiveness […]
Health Officials Warily Eye Rising New BA.2 Omicron Strain
[embedded content] Health officials are keeping a sharp eye on the COVID-19 omicron subvariant BA.2, which appears to be more contagious than the current BA.1 strain — but its health impacts are still unclear. A new World Health Organization study reported that even as COVID-19 cases are falling, BA.2 accounted for 21.5% of all new […]