Two Omicron sub-variants BA.1 and BA.2 are currently spreading in Germany. Both transmit faster than the Delta variant. The first studies already provide us with information on whether the human immune system is immune to them and how serious the disease is in unvaccinated people.
- In Germany, after a temporary epidemic calm, further increases in coronavirus infections are observed
- There we can already speak of the sixth wave, for which two Omicron sub-variants are responsible
- The latter, BA.2, may soon become dominant also in Poland. This is highly disturbing because the sub-variant is more infectious than its predecessor
- What’s going on in Ukraine? Follow the broadcast live
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
Author Gerlinde Felix, welt.de
Once again, we are dealing with record numbers of new infections in Germany. The Robert Koch Institute announced on March 14 as many as 262. 752 new coronavirus infections. The virus is now more widespread in Germany than ever before. Meanwhile, when looking at the situation in other countries, one could expect a better scenario. After the surge in the fifth wave, the number of infections dropped rapidly again. In some places it even approached the minimum value.
However, for the past few days there has been no room for understatement: in Germany, the incidence has not dropped that much – and probably will not. The numbers are rising again. The sixth wave has begun. And that’s at a time when the virus was still circulating in the population.
Epidemic modelers Kai Nagel and his colleagues at TU Berlin wrote in their report that the current wave is actually an overlap of waves, for which different Omicron sub-variants (mainly BA.1 and BA.2) are responsible. The percentage of BA.1 was initially much higher, while BA.2 lagged behind. As a result, the number of new infections has decreased somewhat in the meantime.
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Now, however, the BA.2 subvariant is starting to dominate. This, in turn, explains where the new wave of coronavirus is coming from. It should be emphasized that BA.2 is not a successor to BA.1. Both Omicron sub-variants developed in parallel. This is why they are genetically very different: BA.2 has eight mutations that BA.1 does not. In contrast, BA.2 lacks 13 changes in the spike protein shown by BA.1.
Another BA.2 subtype called BA.2_H78Y has emerged in Denmark. He is responsible there for approx. 30 percent. new infections. This variant may also spread to Germany. Extensive research is currently underway into how gene modifications affect disease transmission and severity. There are even the first results.
The rest of the article is available under the video.
Why did Omikron eliminate the Delta variant?
One week after the discovery of Omicron (on November 9, 2021 in Botswana), this variant was also found in England. The British cohort study then examined how much faster it could spread compared to the Delta variant (which was still dominant at the time). The data comes from 51 thousand. 281 people who tested positive for Omikron or Delta in the period from 5 to 11 December 2021 and their 151 592 contacts. New infections under consideration coincide with the period when BA.1 was the dominant Omicron sub-variant in England.
Study author Hester Allen of the London Health Safety Agency and her colleagues wanted to know how many households become infected when one of them is infected with Delta or Omicron. The results of the study show a clear difference: while people infected with the Delta variant infect around 11 percent. cohabitants, the infection rate with the Omikron variant is 15%.
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Study participants infected with Delta infected an average of 3,7 percent. contacts outside the home, compared to 8,2% people infected with Omikron. The results of this study therefore indicate a higher risk of Omicron transmission compared to the Delta variant both inside and outside the home.
Research results also show that booster vaccinations against COVID-19 are less effective at preventing Omicron infection than Delta. However, they are still effective in protecting against severe disease. This means that many more people will become seriously ill with COVID-19, unless they take the booster. However, as the virologist Sandra Ciesek from the University Hospital in Frankfurt emphasizes in the Heart Foundation podcast of the German Heart Foundation: “that’s why I always warn you that COVID-19 is not a common cold”.
Is BA.2 more dangerous than BA.1?
Berlin virologist Christian Drosten makes a very vivid comparison between BA.1 and BA.2. Both variants are different versions of the same car, but with distinct differences: «One Mercedes looks very neat, while the other has a strange spoiler. But it’s still Mercedes ». In addition, both have different power under the hood.
According to the WHO, this means that BA.2 has an advantage over BA.1 in terms of human-to-human transmission. This is also confirmed by data from a Danish study by Frederik Plesner Lyngse. The study looks at, inter alia, two Omicron sub-variants.
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The dynamics of transmission was examined in 8 thousand. 541 Danish households affected by Omikron infection from late December 2021 to early January 2022, when BA.2 accounted for around a quarter of all new infections. The results of the analysis show that if a person infected with BA.1 does not live alone, approx. her fellow residents will catch an infection from her within a week. However, if the infection is in the BA.29 sub-variant, 2% are infected. people living under one roof.
How does vaccination affect all of this? It turns out that the risk of BA.2 infection compared to BA.1 was more than twice as high in the unvaccinated group. This ratio was slightly lower in those after two injections and lowest in those who received the booster dose.
This means that vaccination provides less protection against BA.2 infection than against BA.1 infection. The study also found that the vaccinated people infected other people less frequently than the unvaccinated. In summing up their research, the Danish scientists write: “We conclude that the Omikron BA.2 is inherently much easier to carry than the BA.1”.
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Virologist Tom Peacock of Imperial College London agrees. However, the advantage of BA.2 over BA.1 is less than that of Omicron over Delta. This is underlined by physicist and variant expert Richard Neher of the Biozentrum of the University of Basel.
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