Fauci: The subvariant BA.2 may increase the number of confirmed COVID cases

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Fauci: The subvariant BA.2 may increase the number of confirmed COVID cases

Fauci: The subvariant BA.2 may increase the number of confirmed cases in United States. 60% more infectious than Omicron!

White House chief medical adviser Fauci believes that the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States will soon return again, because the subvariant “BA.2” of Omicron is very contagious, 50% to 60% higher than Omicron.

Fauci: The subvariant BA.2 may increase the number of confirmed cases in United States. 60% more infectious than Omicron!

Fauci said in an interview with ABC TV in the United States on the 20th that BA.2 has a stronger infectivity, and although the symptoms are not severe, they have not been seen to evade the immune response of the vaccine or previous infection, so the vaccine and booster still remain. It is the best way to prevent severe illness.

The BA.2 variant has led to an increase in confirmed cases in China and Europe. Fauci believes that this variant accounts for 25% or 30% of new confirmed cases in the United States, and is likely to become the most dominant variant of the virus in the United States; he also expects that the BA.2 variant will lead to an increase in the number of confirmed cases, but not necessarily like other variants. cause a massive surge.

US surgeon Vivek Murthy and former US FDA chief Scott Gottlieb also expressed similar views on BA.2, that the variant may lead to an increase in the number of diagnoses, but there will be no large-scale infection.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported more than 31,200 new confirmed cases in total, including 958 deaths, though the figures were down sharply from the beginning of the year.

On March 21, well-known popular science writer Apoorva Mandavilli’s article in The Daily, NYT emphasized the possibility of a potential small peak of COVID-19 epidemic caused by the Omicron BA.2 mutant strain [3]. A new wave of COVID-19 is also challenging vaccination strategies.

Fauci: The subvariant BA.2 may increase the number of confirmed cases in United States. 60% more infectious than Omicron!

Mandavilli made a key discussion. She believes that the FDA and CDC’s general direction of epidemic prevention and control can be judged from the FDA’s applications for the fourth dose of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccination. A fourth dose of vaccination increases neutralizing antibody titers to Omicron, thus preventing infection.

If officials believe that the goal of preventing viral infection in the entire population should be the goal, the mRNA vaccine will be approved for a fourth dose of all people.

But if officials believe that the goal of fighting the epidemic is to reduce hospitalization rates and deaths, then the fourth dose of the mRNA vaccine may not be authorized, but only the fourth dose of the mRNA vaccine for the elderly and immunosuppressed people to reduce hospitalization. rate and death toll.

Therefore, from the relevant policies, it can be felt that the key to the current epidemic prevention in the United States is to reduce the number of all infections or the number of hospitalizations and deaths.

BA.2 is a subtype of the Omicron mutant strain that is more transmissible than Omicron’s earliest subtype, BA.1.

According to a Danish epidemiological study where BA.2 has become the mainstream strain, BA.2 is 1.5 times more infectious than BA.1, but its infection does not increase the risk of hospitalization ; this is important for preventing COVID-19 The spread presents greater challenges, and it also provides a basis for European and American countries to continue to promote the new normal life strategy of “coexisting with the virus”.