BREAKING! Scientist Warns That New Omicron Sublineage BA.2 Will Cause New Surge And Reinfections Globally As Previous Omicron Infection May Offer No Protection!
Source: Omicron BA.2 Variant Jan 21, 2022 2 years, 10 months, 1 day, 23 hours, 10 minutes ago
Prominent French scientist, Professor Dr Antoine Flahaut who is an epidemiologist at the Institut Pasteur and a member of French government advisory body le Conseil scientifique warns that the new Omicron variant called
BA.2 may be the reason that cases in France are not falling not rather are seeing surges in many regions.
Furthermore, there is a high possibility that infection from the earlier Omicron strain might not confer any immune protection against the newer Omicron variant as there has already been cases of individuals reporting getting re-infected in a short period of time!
Professor Flahaut has warned that a new variant of the COVID Omicron virus, dubbed “BA.2,” could cause a new wave of the epidemic in France, just days after authorities predicted the peak of infections was passing.
Professor Flahaut warned that BA.2 could cause a “rebound” spread across the country and also elsewhere in Europe and even globally.
Thailand
Medical News had first warned about the emergence of the BA.2 Omicron variant in early December.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-scientists-discover-that-two-forms-of-omicron-ba-1-and-the-new-ba-2-which-is-a-stealth-version-that-cannot-be-detected-by-pcr-tests
Thailand
Medical News has already been warning that there more Omicron sublineages emerging besides the BA.1 , BA.2 and BA.3 Omicron sublineages.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/warning-omicron-is-still-evolving-the-world-will-pay-dearly-for-assuming-it-is-mild-
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-the-omicron-sub-lineage-temporarily-called-england-milk-2d24ac9-2021-that-is-spreading-in-uk-is-vastly-different-from-the-south-african-omicr
Professor Flahaut, who is also director at The Institute of Global Health in Geneva, said that the new variant could be the reason that cases in France are not falling as quickly as expected.
Professor Flahaut told Thailand
Medical News, “In the UK, the number of new COVID-19 cases is halving every seven days. We expected France to follow the UK's lead, with a two-week delay. However, this has not been the case.”
On the 19
th of January, 108,069 new COVID cases were recorded in UK, and the number of infections being reported each week has come down by at least 37.5%, meaning that the curve of the Omicron-related wave is now moving sharply downwards.
However, in France, there were 436,167 new cases on the 19
th of January and the infecti
on rate is still rising yesterday.
Professor Flauhault added, “This new variant could be the source of the very recent increase in contaminations that we are currently seeing.”
Professor Flauhault said that the BA.2 (as opposed to BA.1, the current dominant Omicron variant), has already been detected in India, Singapore, and Belgium.
According to other scientists, the BA.2 could also be responsible for the epidemic rebound in Denmark at the moment, and could even become a majority in this country.”
Doctors in both France and Denmark are warning that individuals who got infected 4 to 6 weeks ago and were deemed as recovered are now getting sick again with symptoms and there is a very high possibly that the BA.2 is causing reinfections and even disease severity in some cases.
Scientist are postulating that the previous infection with the Omicron BA.1 strain might not confer any protection against the newer BA.2 variant.
The BA.2 variant, which has 28 more mutations than Omicron, has also been called “Omicron stealth”, as it is thought it often passes under the radar of current sequencing tools.
Professor Flauhaut warned, “It’s a variant that seems very close to the current Omicron, but for the moment, we have very little data on its strength or its capacity to spread.”
Further detailed research is warranted on the Omicron BA.2 variant and even the BA.3 variant and other emerging Omicron sub-lineages.
Although the BA.2 variant it has not yet been classed as a ‘variant of concern’ by the WHO or World Health Organization, many scientists still think that it’s very contagious.
Professor Flauhault added, “We will soon know if it escapes the immunity provided by the vaccines and previous infections and will know more about its virulence as studies are underway”
He added, “We are watching the situation in Denmark closely, because that will help us understand more. I do not know whether France’s infection rate will continue to rise or if it will fall. The key is to find out if this sub-variant can affect people who have just had the virus. It is very likely and we must study the possibility closely. For as long as we do not have a response to this question, it is risky to try and make predictions.”
His stark warning comes just days after the French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said, “We have reasons to be optimistic and we are seeing the start of a retreat of the epidemic, as the peak of the current wave is considered to be passing.”
Another member of the Conseil scientifique, Professor Dr Arnaud Fontanet, also said earlier this week that the “worst-case scenario is receding”.
However, Professor Flauhaut cast doubt on these early signs of progress.
Professor Flauhaut said, “I do not have complete confidence in the predictions people are making today on the peak of the fifth wave, and on a potentially-fast retreat. We are not in a good enough situation in France to be talking about an epidemic decrease.”
Professor Flauhaut also recalled the situation from mid-December 2021, when “we thought we had hit the peak, but the Omicron variant relaunched the spread of the virus. This new BA.2 strain could also launch more cases”.
Numerous other global scientists are also warning that situation in Denmark and France needs further monitoring while more urgent research is needed on the BA.2 strain which seems to be driving up hospitalization and mortality rates recently.
For more on the
BA.2 Omicron variant, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.
Share
Tweet
Share
