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THE CONVERSATION<\/p>\n
A new COVID variant has recently been detected in several countries\u00a0including the UK<\/a>, US, India, Australia and Germany.<\/p>\n Called BA.2.75, it\u2019s a subvariant of omicron. You might have also heard it called \u201cCentaurus<\/a>\u201d, the name of a constellation and given to BA.2.75 by a Twitter user.<\/p>\n The World Health Organization has classified BA.2.75 as\u00a0a variant of interest<\/a>, rather than a variant of concern. This means it\u2019s being monitored but there\u2019s not yet evidence it will cause problems.<\/p>\n The numbers of BA.2.75 infections are still relatively low. Most infections in the UK remain driven by the omicron subvariants\u00a0BA.4 and BA.5<\/a>. BA.5 in particular is\u00a0similarly dominant<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0other countries<\/a> where BA.2.75 has been detected.<\/p>\n However, BA.2.75 is becoming\u00a0more common in India<\/a>\u00a0(where it was first detected, back in May), suggesting it has advantages relative to current circulating variants. Some\u00a0have noted<\/a>\u00a0that BA.2.75 is spreading in regions of India where it doesn\u2019t have to compete with BA.5, but rather with the variant it evolved from, BA.2.<\/p>\n That said,\u00a0some data<\/a>\u00a0from India indicates that BA.2.75 may have already peaked. And importantly, there hasn\u2019t been\u00a0a big increase<\/a>\u00a0in hospitalisations or deaths in India from BA.2.75.<\/p>\n Given this, BA.2.75 has quickly gained an additional nickname: a \u201cscariant<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n As\u00a0most of the global population<\/a>\u00a0has now either been vaccinated, infected, or both, variants which can infect people despite their immunity will have an advantage. So SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID) is constantly evolving to gain this advantage.<\/p>\n New variants which have mutations that evade our immunity will replicate and spread, leading to waves of infections. We\u2019ve seen this most recently with BA.4 and BA.5.<\/p>\n The\u00a0memory immune system<\/a>\u00a0recognises infections based on molecular structures of viruses and other pathogens. Mutations change the molecular structure of each SARS-CoV-2 variant slightly, making it more difficult for our immune system to recognise and respond to the virus. This is often called \u201cimmune evasion\u201d.<\/p>\n The concern around BA.2.75 is that is has picked up a number of mutations<\/a>, which might indicate that this variant can evade immunity. But there\u2019s\u00a0no good evidence<\/a>\u00a0at this stage that BA.2.75 can evade the immune system in a significant way.<\/p>\n Most of BA.2.75 is\u00a0structurally the same<\/a>\u00a0as omicron and the original Wuhan variant. Although BA.2.75 has picked up a few mutations, it isn\u2019t fundamentally a different virus.<\/p>\n The memory immune system will still act against BA.2.75, which is what we\u2019ve seen\u00a0with omicron<\/a>. This immunity might not be enough to stop reinfection, but should reduce the severity of a BA.2.75 infection.<\/p>\n While there are concerns BA.2.75 could spread more quickly than other variants, we don\u2019t have any clear evidence on this yet. It seems to have shown an increase which has\u00a0levelled off or even dropped<\/a>\u00a0relative to\u00a0a few weeks ago<\/a>. If this is the case there\u2019s a chance it might even fizzle out in another few weeks.<\/p>\n But, if BA.2.75 does have some immune evasion properties, it could cause another wave through the UK and elsewhere. Still, this would likely spike and then fizzle out like alpha, delta and omicron BA.1.<\/p>\n Thanks to vaccination, if we did face a BA.2.75 wave, we wouldn\u2019t expect the level of deaths and hospitalisations seen earlier in the pandemic. But we know large numbers of cases can still cause significant disruption. And importantly, the constant wave of new variants is still a deadly threat to people who are vulnerable. So how do we overcome this?<\/p>\n One solution could be universal COVID vaccines, which would work against any COVID variants. The aim of a\u00a0universal vaccine<\/a>\u00a0is to induce immunity against a very wide range of molecular structures. It\u2019s akin to fishing with a wider net, making it harder for the fish to swim out of the way.<\/p>\n A\u00a0pan-coronavirus vaccine<\/a>\u00a0is a similar concept but would likely try to induce immunity against the molecular structures common to all coronaviruses. As well providing immunity against new SARS-CoV-2 variants, a pan-coronavirus vaccine might also confer immunity against the next coronavirus pandemic. Some of these vaccines look set to move into clinical trials in\u00a0the next few years<\/a>.<\/p>\n A second solution may be to produce vaccines which induce better immunity in the respiratory system. These largely involve vaccines\u00a0given through your nose<\/a>, training the immune system to make more antibodies in the mucus of the nose and throat.<\/p>\n This type of immunity might help stop SARS-CoV-2 infecting and replicating at the point of entry into our cells, which could slow down the rate at which new variants have the opportunity to emerge. At least 12 of these intranasal vaccines\u00a0are in clinical trials<\/a>.<\/p>\n Right now, I would put my money on BA.2.75 fizzling out without a major wave of infections. But the next omicron subvariant, and the next pandemic, will inevitably come. New vaccine approaches might make us better prepared.<\/p>\nWhy are we still seeing new variants?<\/h2>\n
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<\/div>Improving vaccines could be our best shot<\/h2>\n