September 5, 2023 – The recent highly mutated COVID variant BA.2.86 doesn’t have an increased ability to evade the protection of COVID vaccines or immunity from previous infection, recent laboratory tests show.
The BA.2.86 variant attracted the eye of health authorities in recent weeks because of its rapid global spread and huge variety of mutations. Because there have been so many mutations, it increased the probabilities that it will behave in another way than previous versions of the virus, potentially making it more dangerous.
Now experiments by two teams of US scientists show that antibodies from COVID vaccinations or previous infections can recognize and fight the BA.2.86 version of the virus. CNN reportednoting that protection “may even be better” than antibody responses to other virus strains currently circulating.
The recent studies showed that folks infected with an XBB version of the virus previously 6 months had the strongest immune response to BA.2.86.
“BA.2.86 really doesn’t seem to have much of an impact on neutralization after XBB infection. What does that mean? “The new COVID vaccine (likely available soon) should provide good protection against infection, even against BA.2.86,” said former White House COVID coordinator Ashish Jha, MD, MPH. wrote on X, formerly often called Twitter.
The CDC expects the updated COVID vaccine to be available in mid-September. Just just like the annual flu shot, the brand new approach to COVID vaccines is to develop a new edition every year that targets strains which are expected to turn out to be widespread. The recent COVID vaccine has been optimized to guard against a strain of XBB called XBB.1.5.
Last week, that CDC BA.2.86 has been reported to have been found either in people or in wastewater in 4 U.S. states, however it continues to be so rare that it just isn’t even listed as a definite strain within the CDC's variant tracker. The currently predominant virus strains all remain subvariants of Omicron. Currently, EG.5 accounts for 21.5% of cases, FL.1.5.1 for 14.5%, and multiple XBB strains for 8 to 9% each. FL.1.5.1 is a recombinant of two XBB virus strains and should be more worrisome than BA.2.86 since it showed some ability to evade immunity in laboratory tests, CNN reported.
“If there wasn't so much hype around BA.2.86, that would actually be the focus of the article,” Dan Barouch, MD, PhD, told the news outlet, referring to the FL.1.5.1 strain. Barouch is head of considered one of the laboratories where the brand new tests were carried out and likewise directs the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Massachusetts.
There has been a rise in severe COVID cases since June, leading to more people being hospitalized with the virus. About 15,000 people were hospitalized within the week ending August 19. This is the most recent week for which data is offered from the CDC. Deaths rose from about 500 per week since June to over 600 deaths in the primary week of August. Still, the numbers are far lower than at the peak of the pandemic, when greater than 20,000 people were dying per week and greater than 100,000 weekly hospitalizations were reported.
The CDC said in last week's COVID risk assessment update to BA.2.86 that 97% of individuals within the U.S. have antibodies from previous infection, vaccination, or each which are “likely” to offer protection against severe cases of COVID-19.