(ANSA) – ROME, FEBRUARY 18 – The BA.2 variant is not only spreading faster than Omicron but could also cause more serious diseases and appears resistant to some of the key drugs against Covid-19. This is suggested by new research carried out in Japan.
Laboratory experiments, CNN reports, show that BA.2 may have characteristics that make it capable of causing disease as serious as previous variants of Covid-19, including Delta. And like Omicron, it appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines. A booster dose restores protection, making disease 74% less likely. BA.2 is also resistant to some treatments, including sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody currently used against Omicron.
“It could be, from a human point of view, a worse virus than BA.1 and it could be able to spread better and cause worse disease,” says Dr. Daniel Rhoads, head of microbiology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio who examined the study but was not involved in the research. (HANDLE).
Source: Ansa
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