The SARS-CoV-2 Virus Is Evolving Even More Rapidly And The New BA.5 Variant Exhibits An Antigen Drift That Is Much Further From The Ancestral Wuhan Strain!
Source: BA.5 Variant Jul 17, 2022 2 years, 5 months, 5 days, 23 hours, 33 minutes ago
As the world registers 568, 433 New COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours and 932 deaths (actual figures could be as high as between 6 to 8-fold as many countries are not conducting sufficient testing or are concealing the actual COVID-19 data and in some cases like in Thailand, the authorities are simply deliberately underreporting the actual figures!), the global population is still clueless as to what is in store for them in terms of the
BA.5 variant that is causing the current surge.
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But whatever the case maybe, experts and health authorities are underestimating the impact of the new
BA.5 variant and its emerging subvariants and also that of the new BA.2.75 variant that is expected to lead the next consecutive surge.
The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is now even evolving and mutating at a rapid speed than that at the start of the pandemic and the lack of proper measures, the usage of the outdated vaccines and various monoclonal antibodies along with ineffective mutagenic antivirals are all driving this rapid evolution.
The
BA.5 variant is to date, one of the variants that has demonstrated the greatest antigenic drift away from the original ancestral Wuhan wildtype strain and has a greater immune evasiveness, a greater transmissibility and growth advantage, better viral fitness and a different pathogenesis.
The new
BA.5 is not just better at affecting the lungs but is also adapted at disarming the human host immune responses hence while it damages the lungs, we might not see much early severe states caused the cytokine storms triggered in the case of infections by the original Wuhan wildtype strain or by the alpha and delta variants.
Instead we can expect to see more people suddenly developing breathing issues despite not exhibiting other severe symptoms and suddenly requiring urgent supplemental oxygen.
The new
BA.5 variant is also believed to be more neuropathogenic as already many people are reporting symptoms typically associated with meningitis such as headaches, confusion, stiff necks and neck pains, short duration of fevers, cognitive issues, speech problems, nerve pains etc.
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-sars-cov-2-ba-5-variant-could-be-more-neuropathogenic-urgent-studies-warranted-to-assess-long-covid-threats-to-the-brain-and-cns
Though most will recover from these symptoms, the ongoing neurological damage is expected to be far worse than those seen during the alpha or delta waves.
The long-term effects from the
BA.5 is going to be far more devastating than that of the earlier variants and Long COVID is really going to be an issue.
The fact that already many who are having various Long COVID issues are getting re-infected with the
BA.5 variant is only going to additionally compound to their misery.
We also expect that the heart, kidney, gastrointestinal tract including the liver and also the immune system
is going to be heavily impacted by infections with this new BA.5 variant.
The BA.5 exhibits the greatest antigenic shift away from teh ancestrla wuhan strain compared to the other variants.
Source: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.12.22277336v1
At the moment, there is literally no effective antivirals (remdesivir, molnupiravir, paxlovid , ivermectin, fluvoxamine, niclosamide, famotidine, quercetin etc are totally not effective against the new variant and its emerging subvariants).
None of the existing monoclonal therapeutics are also effective against the
BA.5 variant and claims that boosters can prevent disease severity and hospitalizations should really be investigated in detail as it is now being seen that infections with the
BA.5 variant might not lead to early disease severity or death except for those that are in the vulnerable groups ie the obese, the aged, the young and those with existing comorbidities, but instead the severity will set in much later with any early warnings ie collapsed lungs, heart failures, encephalitis, strokes etc all much later.
Viral persistence is expected to be rampant with the
BA.5 infections as the new variant is truly effective at disarming the human host immune responses and is able to infiltrate the various tissues and organs much better.
Off course detailed studies are needed to validate everything that is being said here but already observational reports are indicating everything we are saying here to be true.
With the lack of any measures as many countries have now moved to a ‘business as usual’ mode and with a consecutive surge to follow with the new BA.2.75, BA.2.77 and BA.2.78 variants which also display an additional 9 mutations than that of the
BA.5 and is also believed to be exhibiting an antigenic shift from that of the BA.5, we can expect more problems in the coming months before an actual lethal and more virulent variant emerges.
Already the BA.2 and
BA.5 variants are still spawning so many unique subvariants and in reality, the phase and rate at which they are evolving and mutating has never been witnessed in any other viruses so far.
For more on the
BA.5 Variant, keep on logging to Thailand
Medical News.
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