Debut Of BA.2.87 And BA.2.87.1 Is A Warning That SARS-CoV-2 Is Evolving At An Unprecedented Rate And Is Heading Towards Worrisome Trajectories!
Nikhil Prasad Fact checked by:Thailand Medical News Team Feb 02, 2024 9 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 16 hours, 45 minutes ago
COVID-19 News: The debut of the new BA.2.87 variant In South Africa that spots more than 100 over mutations serves as a warning that SARS-CoV-2 is not only evolving at an unprecedented rate but worse, an analysis of the mutations found on this new BA.2.87 is nothing but an indication that the virus is indeed heading in a direction of worrisome trajectories ie enhanced immune evasiveness, enhanced tropisms towards targeted host sites and chronic viral persistence. While it is too early to assess the lethality and transmissibility of this new BA.2.86 variant...just like in the case of the BA.2.86 variant that emerged in August 2023 but was deemed by certain experts that it was unlikely to become dominant…these new variants can easily spawn new sub-lineages that acquire the relevant mutations to become more infectious and transmissible as in the case of JN.1
Debut Of BA.2.87 And BA.2.87.1 in South Africa Is A Warning That
SARS-CoV-2 Is Evolving At An Unprecedented Rate
The new worrisome BA.2.87 variant that Thailand
Medical News reported in the last 24 hours has been causing a stir in the research and medical community.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-covid-19-news-researchers-identify-a-new-ba-2-variant-with-more-than-100-mutations-in-south-africa
https://twitter.com/SolidEvidence/status/1753074622579556645
https://twitter.com/RealCheckMarker/status/1753161473625313422
https://twitter.com/JPWeiland/status/1753204604886532392
Designated as BA.2.87 and defined as BA.2 with the C18744T mutation, this new variant already has a spawn designated as BA.2.87.1. with the 9866C mutation.
https://github.com/cov-lineages/pango-designation/issues/2484
Some online are calling for the BA.2.87 variant to be nicknamed as the Geert variant after a leading virologist from Belgium, Geert Vanden Bossche who warned that we are likely to see lots of worrisome variants emerge in 2024.
https://voiceforscienceandsolidarity.substack.com/
What is concerning is that there are many new mutations never seen on any SARS-CoV-2 variants and sub-lineages before such as the E:F23V mutation!
Also researchers are finding that certain serious mutations that have never occurred together are being seen in this new BA.2.87 variant such as spike mutations S:V642G, S:S691P, S:T791I all together!
A preliminary analysis by self-made American SARS-CoV-2 va
riant expert, Ryan Hisner who has made many valid and critical discoveries in the last 3 years, indicates that these new lineages are not only going to possibly be more immune evasive but are likely to cause chronic persistent infections i.e the virus is evolving for enhanced viral persistence in the host!
https://twitter.com/LongDesertTrain/status/1753195748127072592
He gives as examples… that the new BA.2.87 has abnormally large deletions such as ∆14-22 + ∆136-146 which will likely eliminate the C15-C136 disulfide bond, causing a likely rearrangement of the NTD structure that will help evade antibodies.
He warns that the NTD deletions seen in BA.2.87 represent a return to the shorter NTD loops of more pathogenic and virulent SARS-CoV-1 & most Bat-CoVs.
He also highlighted some of the more worrisome spike mutations seen in the previous deadly SARS-CoV-2 strains that are found on the new BA.2.87 variant. For example S:R190S found in Gamma, S:D215G found in Beta and S:N417T also found in Gamma.
He also mentioned some of the mutations found in the BA.2.87 variant that have been associated with chronic infections such as S:N460K S:N481K S:T791I S:Y796H
Meanwhile, more research has already started and labs across the world are already initiating various studies to understand more about this worrisome variant.
Although only 9 sequences of this new variant have been detected, there could be far more undetected cases as the new variant could have been silently spreading. Not just in South Africa, but literally most countries in the world have reduced or stopped SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance making it harder for experts to get a accurate perspective of how the various SARS-CoV-2 variants are evolving and where they are circulating.
It should be noted that all the 9 sequences were from hospitalized individuals with some reportedly having severe pneumonia. South African authorities are refusing to divulge the current status of these individuals or to comment of any of them have since died.
Readers should also note that even if the BA.2.87 lineage does not take off to become predominant in circulation, we still ahev many other possible threats as some of the XBB lineages and more so the BA.2.86 and JN.1 lineages are evolving at unprecedented rates, creating many worrisome new sub-lineages for example:
https://github.com/sars-cov-2-variants/lineage-proposals/issues/1352
https://github.com/cov-lineages/pango-designation/issues/2470
https://github.com/cov-lineages/pango-designation/issues/2461
https://github.com/cov-lineages/pango-designation/issues/2475
In our previous
COVID-19 News coverages, we have been warning about lots of JN.1 spawns that are emerging in specific geolocations with the potential to wreak havoc if they are not already doing so!
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-covid-19-news-new-jn-1-11-that-thailand-medical-news-warned-about-leads-silent-surge-in-india-with-244-cases-detected-so-far
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-news-worrisome-jn-1-indian-sub-lineage-jn-1-11-that-thailand-medical-news-warned-about-is-now-increasing-in-spread-across-india
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-news-new-jn-2-5-variant-wreaking-havoc-in-mato-grosso-brazil-possivity-test-rates-now-70-3-percent
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/brazilian-news-sound-alarm-about-detection-of-ba-2-86-spawn-jn-2-5-after-the-variant-was-found-driving-covid-19-hospitalizations-in-canada
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-news-jn-1-spawn-jn-1-2-that-spots-the-spike-mutation-m1229i-found-in-infected-minks-likely-to-be-the-next-predominant-variant
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-news-after-jn-1,-expect-new-spawns-jn-1-1,-jn-1-1-1,-jn-8,-jn-9-and-spawns-with-t572i-mutation-to-continuously-reinfect-till-lethal-strain-em
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-news-is-the-jn-1-variant-that-is-evolving-rapidly-becoming-possibly-more-pathogenic-jn-1-strains-in-singapore-developing-ns8-s103l-mutation
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-covid-19-news-russia-witnessing-a-surge-in-covid-19-cases-but-it-is-not-jn-1-that-is-driving-it
While health authorities and those controlling the COVID-19 narratives keep on saying that the new variants are all mild, we are witnessing more hospitalizations and excess deaths rates increasing in many locations across the world.
While we do agree that for many, during the phase of acute infection, they might only experience mild or moderate conditions unlike those in the vulnerable groups like the aged or those with existing comorbidities, these new SARS-CoV-2 variants and sub-lineages are geared for viral persistence and the chronic long- term infections they cause are likely to organ damage and sepsis and more fatal outcomes but to forget mass numbers in the population in a state of perpetual sickness!
For the latest
COVID-19 News, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.
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