23 July 2022.- A new variant of COVID-19 has recently been detected in several countries including the UK, US, India, Australia and Germany.
Called BA.2.75, it is a subtype of Omicron. You may also have heard that it is called “Centaurus”, the name of a constellation and one Twitter user gave BA.2.75.
The World Health Organization has classified BA.2.75 as a type of anxiety rather than a type of anxiety. This means it is being monitored, but there is no evidence yet that it is causing problems.
New types that contain mutations that evade our immunity will replicate and spread, creating waves of infection. We’ve seen this recently with BA.4 and BA.5.
The memory immune system recognizes infection based on the molecular structures of viruses and other pathogens. The mutations slightly alter the molecular structure of each SARS-CoV-2 type, making it harder for our immune system to recognize and respond to the virus. This is often referred to as ‘immune evasion’.
The concern about BA.2.75 is that it has carried multiple mutations, which may indicate that this variant may evade immunity. But there is no good evidence at this stage that BA.2.75 can evade the immune system in any meaningful way.
Most of BA.2.75 is structurally similar to Omicron and the original Wuhan version. Although BA.2.75 has carried some mutations, it is not a distinct virus in origin.
The memory immune system will continue to act against BA.2.75, which is what we’ve seen with Omicron. This immunity may not be sufficient to prevent re-infection, but it should reduce the severity of BA.2.75 infection.
While there is concern that BA.2.75 may spread faster than other variants, we have no clear evidence of this yet. It appears to have increased or decreased compared to a few weeks ago. If so, chances are it will fade in a few more weeks as well.
BA.2.75 The number of infections remains relatively low. Most infections in the UK are driven by the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron sub-variants. BA.5 is equally effective especially in other countries where BA.2.75 is detected.
However, BA.2.75 is becoming more common in India (where it was first detected in May), suggesting it has advantages over the currently circulating variants. Some have noted that BA.2.75 is spreading to areas of India where it does not need to compete with BA.5, but with a variant that evolved from BA.2.
Since most of the world’s population has already been vaccinated, infected, or both, variants that can infect people regardless of their immunity would have an advantage. So SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes Covid) is constantly evolving to gain this advantage.
