October 18, 2022 – The last two years have seen COVID-19 variants emerge one at a time across the world, but a multitude of viruses and a new “evolutionary phase” are making health experts nervous, according to The Washington Post.
There are currently multiple versions of the omicron variant, and each new subvariant seems to be stronger against immune defenses than the last. Each new strain of omicron has posed a similar threat, and it’s almost too much for experts to keep up with.
The report says that the “pace of evolution is so fast that many scientists depend on Twitter to keep up. A month ago, scientists were worried about BA.2.75, a variant that took off in South Asia and spawned a cloud of other concerning sublineages. In the United States, BA.4.6 and BF.7 have been slowly picking up steam. A few weeks ago, BQ.1.1 started to steal the spotlight — and still looks like a contender to take over this fall in Europe and North America. A lineage called XBB looms on the sidelines, and threatens to scramble the forecast.”
While it’s easy to get lost in the fray of each new strain, many experts say that focusing on any one possible variant is missing the bigger picture: each new mutation is affecting the receptor binding domain, where virus-blocking antibodies dock, giving it an edge against an immunity defense.
“It’s important for people to understand that the fact there’s not a Greek letter name that has come out does not mean the virus stopped evolving,” said Jesse Bloom, an expert on viral evolution at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle. He described SARS-CoV-2’s ability to evolve as “strikingly rapid.”
These new mutations, coupled with what’s looking to be a bigger flu season, could cause a greater winter surge than the past couple of years. Experts say that COVID vaccines are still the best line of protection available.