{"id":63259,"date":"2022-03-29T13:29:57","date_gmt":"2022-03-29T19:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/?p=63259"},"modified":"2022-04-06T08:30:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T14:30:08","slug":"is-the-omicron-ba-2-variant-a-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/is-the-omicron-ba-2-variant-a-concern\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the omicron BA.2 variant a concern?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>
\"concerns
Scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) load samples from patients into an automated instrument as they study the virus that causes COVID-19. The newest question for researchers and the public is whether the omicron BA.2 variant is a concern. Photo by James Gathany for the CDC.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The BA.2 variant, the newest COVID-19 strain, continues to account for a high percentage of cases in the United States. Is BA.2 a concern? And how worried should you be?<\/p>\n

We consulted with infectious disease and COVID-19 expert,\u00a0Dr. Thomas Campbell<\/a>, to answer your questions about BA.2 and other variants.<\/p>\n

Campbell ran clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines at\u00a0UCHealth University of Colorado Hospital<\/a>\u00a0on the\u00a0Anschutz Medical Campus<\/a>. He is also\u00a0a professor of medicine and infectious diseases<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0University of Colorado School of Medicine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all ready for the pandemic to be over, but now we\u2019re hearing about the new BA.2 variant. What is BA.2 and should I be concerned?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cThe new BA.2 variant is another version of omicron. It behaves very much like the previous version of omicron,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

And, yes, unfortunately we should be concerned about BA.2, he said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because it\u2019s even more infectious than the original omicron variant, which itself was far more infectious than delta and previous COVID-19 variants.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach iteration of these variants is more and more infectious,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

While the original omicron variant has not caused people to get as severely ill as the delta variant, BA.2 could be dangerous for unvaccinated people, vulnerable older people whose antibodies have declined and people who are immunocompromised.<\/p>\n

Campbell says we\u2019re now in a \u201ccalm in the storm,\u201d with lower hospitalizations and deaths. But he predicts that this relatively quiet time won\u2019t last. And sadly, the pandemic is not over yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will likely see a spike in cases again, but I hope that we don\u2019t see a big spike in hospitalizations,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Why is BA.2 a concern if many people are vaccinated or have previously gotten sick with COVID-19?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\"dr.
Dr. Thomas Campbell is an expert on COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. He shared his expertise about the BA.2 variant and whether you should be concerned about it. Photo: UCHealth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The problem is that millions of people still are vulnerable to severe illness. That\u2019s because many are either unvaccinated, haven\u2019t gotten booster doses or their immunities from an infection have waned.<\/p>\n

While about 80% of people in the U.S. have had at least one vaccine dose, that still leaves millions who are not up to date on vaccines. The U.S. population is about 331 million. So, if 20% of people are unvaccinated, that\u2019s 66 million people.<\/p>\n

Of course, some of these unvaccinated people already have gotten COVID-19 and should have some natural immunities that could provide protection. But studies have shown that immunities \u2014\u00a0both from vaccines and prior infections \u2014\u00a0wane over time.<\/p>\n

And there are some people who never had vaccines or COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere still is a substantial portion of the population, perhaps around 10-to-15%, who have no immunities. They have not been vaccinated and they have not been infected yet. Those individuals continue to be at high risk,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

If I had COVID-19 already, but am not vaccinated, am I at risk of getting BA.2?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yes. Anyone who is unvaccinated could get very sick with BA.2 even if they previously have gotten sick with COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who have recovered from pre-omicron strains like delta, alpha or the original Wuhan strain are at risk. Immunities from a previous infection do not offer high protection against omicron or BA.2,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Who is at the greatest risk if they get COVID-19 from BA.2 or any other variant?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Throughout the pandemic, unvaccinated people have been at the greatest risk. That\u2019s still true. \u00a0In addition, other groups have been especially vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who are older and those who have underlying health conditions are most at risk for a bad outcome, including hospitalization and possibly death,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Who is at intermediate risk if they get BA.2?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cPeople who have been vaccinated, but have not gotten the booster shot are at intermediate risk,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Why? The key reason is that as the variants have developed, vaccines have become less effective at preventing infections, although they are still highly effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s still a huge number of people who are at intermediate risk because of waning immunity after a booster or who haven\u2019t gotten a booster or are not vaccinated at all and recovered from a pre-omicron variant,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Vulnerable people who have not fared well with COVID-19 infections \u2014 including older people, immunocompromised people and pregnant women, for example \u2014 could still get very sick with BA.2.<\/p>\n

“One or two doses of vaccines do not protect very well against symptomatic infection with either the original omicron variant or BA.2,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cA booster dose protects well, but fades over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campbell, himself, was one of the people who was fully vaccinated and had a booster and still got sick with omicron. He was able to recover at home and experienced relatively mild symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t too bad because I\u2019ve been vaccinated and boosted. If I hadn\u2019t had any of the immunity from vaccines, I probably would have been very ill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What should people do to stay well?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Anyone who isn\u2019t vaccinated should get vaccinated. And those who are vaccinated, but haven\u2019t gotten booster doses should also do so as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

Campbell\u2019s message is clear: get up to date on your vaccines to prevent COVID-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s estimated that in the U.S., only about 50% of people who are eligible for a booster have received one,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Are you concerned that mask mandates have been lifted and few precautions are in place now as the new BA.2 variant is spreading quickly?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Campbell is realistic. He understands why politicians and public health leaders have loosened restrictions. Leaders in all 50 U.S. states have lifted mask mandates. Two years into the pandemic, the majority of people have little desire to return to restrictive measures.<\/p>\n

This means that BA.2 and any future variants will be able to spread more easily.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is wide open and no one is wearing masks. So, all the public health measures that we had in place to temper the spread of the virus during previous waves are no longer there. That means that the infection will spread faster,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cAt the same time, we have more infectious variants so they\u2019re going to spread more easily from person to person.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, individuals will need to evaluate their choices.<\/p>\n

If you are at high risk due to a pre-existing health condition, continue to be cautious and wear a mask in crowded indoor settings.<\/p>\n

How long do immunities to COVID-19 last?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

While scientists don\u2019t know exactly how long immunities last, Campbell said we can learn a great deal from other coronaviruses that cause the common cold and have been infecting humans for millennia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are four other coronaviruses that infect us,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cVirtually 100% of us are infected with all four of them at some point in our life. Most of us are infected multiple times with each one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers have done experiments in which they have deliberately infected people with the common coronaviruses, then measured their immunities.<\/p>\n

While people had immunities shortly after their infections, months or years later, the immunities are often gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re completely infectible with the same virus,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cSo, immunity after recovering from a coronavirus is not lifelong.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the news on coronavirus immunities is not all disappointing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough immunities don\u2019t protect against infection. They do seem to protect against serious illness. So, in most people, these coronaviruses only cause the common cold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can mimic this effect with vaccines and by boosting so that the virus causes only a relatively mild illness,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cEven with boosting, it\u2019s not 100%. You get the best protection in the three to four months after a booster.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should people who had omicron be concerned about an infection from BA.2?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Campbell said there have been a handful of documented cases of people who recovered from omicron and became re-infected with the newest variant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very uncommon, but it\u2019s not zero,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

What about additional booster shots? Will healthy people need a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose and will immunocompromised people need an extra booster as well?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yes. Leaders at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have authorized additional booster doses of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for everyone ages 50 an older, along with some other immunocompromised people.<\/p>\n

Health officials authorized the additional boosters because immunities are waning and they want as many people as possible to be protected before the next wave of infections hits.<\/p>\n

Campbell encourages people to follow the FDA guidance.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone should get fully vaccinated and boosted,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Health officials in Israel have been giving additional booster shots for months while leaders in the UK recently authorized them.<\/p>\n

Campbell said early data from both Israel and the UK showed increased protections after a fourth dose (or a fifth for immunocompromised people).<\/p>\n

(Read a summary about fourth doses in the New England Journal of Medicine<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

After BA.2, will we see additional variants that cause COVID-19?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Yes. New variants will develop after the BA.2 version spreads. But it\u2019s unclear how concerning or how different the new variants will be.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s unlikely that we\u2019ll see as big a change as we did going from delta to omicron, but it\u2019s very likely that we will see smaller changes,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, as variants develop, they get better and better at spreading.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018desire,\u2019 if you will, of a virus, is to spread more easily. And so, with each wave, we likely will continue to see incrementally more infectious variants,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

How do new COVID-19 variants develop?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It\u2019s difficult to track exactly how viruses change in real time. But some variants develop in people who have suppressed immunities, such as a person who has advanced, untreated HIV or a person who is receiving bone marrow transplants, Campbell said.<\/p>\n

Even with vaccines, people with suppressed immune systems can\u2019t fight viruses well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey remain infected for very long periods of time and their immune responses are weak. So, they can\u2019t completely shut down the virus. Their immunities may be strong enough, however, that they affect the virus. This allows the virus to change and adapt to immune responses,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether or not that\u2019s how these new variants (like BA.2) have arisen is speculation,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s impossible to know exactly where variants have sprung to life. Researchers can identify where variants were first detected.<\/p>\n

\u201cOmicron was first detected in southern Africa. Delta was first detected in India. Gamma was first detected in Brazil and mu in Colombia. We know that alpha was first detected in England and the (ancestral SARS-CoV-2) virus was detected in Wuhan, China,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t narrow it down to the first person who got a particular variant. These variants have emerged all over the world and in the U.S. as well,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cThis is a global phenomenon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The BA.2 variant, the newest COVID-19 strain, continues to account for a high percentage of cases in the United States. Is BA.2 a concern? And how worried should you be? We consulted with infectious disease and COVID-19 expert,\u00a0Dr. Thomas Campbell, to answer your questions about BA.2 and other variants. Campbell ran clinical trials for COVID-19 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2123,"featured_media":63265,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4859,4860,9069],"class_list":["post-63259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-vaccine"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIs the BA.2 variant a concern? - UCHealth Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The omicron BA.2 variant, the newest COVID-19 strain, accounts for a high percentage of cases in the U.S. Who should be concerned about BA.2?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/is-the-omicron-ba-2-variant-a-concern\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is the omicron BA.2 variant a concern?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The omicron BA.2 variant, the newest COVID-19 strain, accounts for a high percentage of cases in the U.S. Who should be concerned about BA.2?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.uchealth.org\/today\/is-the-omicron-ba-2-variant-a-concern\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"UCHealth Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/uchealthorg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-29T19:29:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-06T14:30:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2022\/03\/29131714\/CDC-scientists-tiny.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, UCHealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@uchealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@uchealth\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, UCHealth\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/is-the-omicron-ba-2-variant-a-concern\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/is-the-omicron-ba-2-variant-a-concern\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, UCHealth\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d43cd81d6f8e440a3e496f8a012c68e9\"},\"headline\":\"Is the omicron BA.2 variant a concern?\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-29T19:29:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-06T14:30:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/is-the-omicron-ba-2-variant-a-concern\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1918,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/is-the-omicron-ba-2-variant-a-concern\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/uchealth-wp-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/6\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/29131714\\\/CDC-scientists-tiny.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"coronavirus\",\"COVID-19\",\"COVID-19 vaccine\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/is-the-omicron-ba-2-variant-a-concern\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.uchealth.org\\\/today\\\/is-the-omicron-ba-2-variant-a-concern\\\/\",\"name\":\"Is the BA.2 variant a concern? 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