While in the world the peak of the wave of omicron, initially expected for mid-January, is still not crossed and the number of new daily contaminations regularly beats records in the United States and in Europe, a new variant comes to appear. It is, according to specialists from BA.2, omicron’s little brother, but it would be 1.5 times more dangerous.
If this new mutation could infect people previously contaminated by omicron, nothing indicates, for the moment, a greater danger.
The first results of the sequencing of this mutation revealed many similarities between the variant BA.2 and omicron but also a notable difference on the SPIKE protein which determines the contagiousness of the virus but also the effects of the immune response permitted by antibodies.
In Denmark where he became dominant, the main public health institute explains that the Ba. 2 subvariant “spreads more than once and a half more quickly than the original BA.1. It would particularly affect children and non -vaccinated people. ”
According to CNBC, half of the US states have reported cases related to contamination by this sub-virant who is starting to worry.
In Tunisia, the Institut Pasteur evokes mutations in omicron and the presence of many submumters, but is not, for the moment, the existence of BA. 2.
