The Next Variant

The popular media is beginning to send a very annoying type of headline/article our way.  The headline says something like "What comes after the omicron wave?" and, after you've read the whole article, you realize that the answer is:  "We don't know."  Couldn't put that in the headline, could you?

It seems that it mostly depends on what tools the upcoming variants come equipped with and, of course, we don't know.  Some (very) preliminary research is suggesting that the BA.2 omicron variant* may have some very effective tools indeed:

The BA.2 virus -- a subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant -- isn't just spreading faster than its distant cousin, it may also cause more severe disease and appears capable of thwarting some of the key weapons we have against Covid-19, new research suggests... New lab experiments from Japan show that BA.2 may have features that make it as capable of causing serious illness as older variants of Covid-19, including Delta... And like Omicron, it appears to largely escape the immunity created by vaccines. A booster shot restores protection, making illness after infection about 74% less likely... BA.2 is also resistant to some treatments, including sotrovimab, the monoclonal antibody that's currently being used against Omicron.

If even one or two of these findings is accurate, we won't be reading as much about the new world soon.  What comes after this "final wave" is - the next variant.  Stay tuned.

 * - Now variants have variants.  Are we having fun yet?