{"id":18737,"date":"2023-08-19T20:05:48","date_gmt":"2023-08-19T15:05:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/?p=18737"},"modified":"2023-08-19T22:01:32","modified_gmt":"2023-08-19T17:01:32","slug":"next-outbreak-scientists-alarmed-over-deadliness-of-new-covid-19-variant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/health\/next-outbreak-scientists-alarmed-over-deadliness-of-new-covid-19-variant\/","title":{"rendered":"Next outbreak? Scientists alarmed over deadliness of new COVID-19 variant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Thursday again warned of a new, highly mutated lineage of the virus that causes COVID-19, ringing alarms of what potentially can be a deadlier version of the dreaded virus.<\/p>\n<p>The CDC identified the new lineage by the name BA.2.86 on the messaging platform X, saying: &#8220;As we learn more about BA.2.86, CDC&#8217;s advice on protecting yourself from COVID-19 remains the same.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The scientists added that the lineage has been detected in the US, Denmark and Israel, Khaleej Times reported.<\/p>\n<p>According to a post on X by the World Health Organisation (WHO) earlier on Thursday, the organisation had classified BA.2.86 as a &#8220;variant under monitoring&#8221; due to the large number of mutations it carries.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, the WHO said that, so far, only a few sequences of the variant have been reported from a handful of countries.<\/p>\n<p>Dr S Wesley Long, medical director of diagnostic microbiology at Houston Methodist, explained that the new lineage, which has 36 mutations from the currently dominant XXB.1.5 COVID-19 variant, &#8220;harkens back to an earlier branch&#8221; of the virus.<\/p>\n<p>It is yet to be known whether BB.2.86 will be able to outcompete other virus strains or have any benefit in evading immune responses from earlier infections or vaccinations, he claimed.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Read more:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/world\/uk-committee-finds-boris-johnson-responsible-for-violating-covid-rules.html\">UK committee finds Boris Johnson responsible for violating COVID rules<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>According to preliminary research, the new version &#8220;will have equal or greater escape than XXB.1.5 from antibodies elicited by pre-Omicron and first-generation Omicron variants,&#8221; according to a PowerPoint presentation issued on Thursday by Jesse Bloom, a virologist at the Fred Hutch Cancer Centre.<\/p>\n<p>The strain that will be protected against in subsequent COVID-19 booster doses is the Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5.<\/p>\n<p>The most plausible scenario, according to Bloom&#8217;s slides, is that BA.2.86 never spreads widely because it is less contagious than the current dominant variations. However, more sequencing data are required to confirm this.<\/p>\n<p>The Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 is the strain targeted by vaccines in upcoming Covid booster shots.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My biggest concern would be that it could cause a bigger spike in cases than what we have seen in recent waves,&#8221; Dr Long said. &#8220;The boosters will still help you fight off COVID-19 in general.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Thursday again warned of a new, highly mutated lineage of the virus that causes COVID-19, ringing alarms of what potentially can be a deadlier version of the dreaded virus. The CDC identified the new lineage by the name BA.2.86 on the messaging platform X, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":18738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[584],"class_list":["post-18737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-covid-19"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyausaf.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}