Last week I wrote that we don't need to know all the specifics about different variants. It just confuses people. What the public needs to know is that there are a lot of variants out there at once, so getting sick or immunized doesn't prevent getting sick again. It's one virus, but many, many different iterations of it.
And now I'm going to eat my words.
Pirola (BA.2.86) is different. It's now the most immune evasive variant and has the highest reproductive rate, which means it's even harder to avoid, and it's spreading further. A paper in The Lancet explains:
"BA.2.86 bears more than 30 mutations in the spike protein when compared with XBB and the parental BA.2, and many of these mutations are assumed to be associated with immune evasion. . . . BA.2.86 has been detected in several continents (Europe, North America, and Africa), suggesting that this variant might be spreading silently worldwide."
Vaccines aren't ready for this one. As always, vaccines are behind the curve, forever playing a guessing game with the variants in hopes of predicting which will be the best match by the time the vaccine is available to the public. This round is targeting XBB.1.5, the Kraken.
If you haven't already, for the love of all that is good in the world, please wear a mask.
And consider nasal spray, mouthwash, mini-HEPAs, and far-UV lights if you can afford them.
No comments:
Post a Comment