A new and rare COVID variant that is just starting to be seen here in the U.S. “bears watching” because of how many mutations it has, according to two top Boston doctors. So far, the new BA.2.86 strain, nicknamed “Pirola,” has not shown any increased transmissability, but it might be able to bypass immunity from the COVID-19 vaccine or a recent…
A new and rare COVID variant that is just starting to be seen here in the U.S."bears watching" because of how many mutations it has, according to two top Boston doctors., nicknamed"Pirola," has not shown any increased transmissability, but it might be able to bypass immunity from the COVID-19 vaccine or a recent infection with a different variant, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
"The new BA.2.86 variant is getting a lot of attention as we see a blip in COVID-19 incidence because it has been identified from people in geographically diverse settings and because it has such a large number of mutations as compared to XBB.1.5," added Dr. Daniel Kuritzkes, chief of infectious diseases at Brigham and Women's Hospital."It is important to stress, however, that so far it has been isolated from only a handful of people.
She added that the BA.2.86 variant is in"no way" related to the recent increase in COVID cases, hospitalizations and wastewater levels in the Boston area. It appears to have descended from the omicron BA.2 sublineage, which caused surges of the virus in early 2022,Over the last few weeks, the CDC says the variant has been detected in a small number of samples from infected people and wastewater in several countries, including the U.S."The variant is notable because it has multiple genetic differences compared to previous versions of SARS-CoV-2 and it has been detected in several locations within a short amount of time," the agency said.
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