Analysis: Current views of the new Covid varients, the potential impact and seriousness

Eris, BA.2.86: Do I need to worry about COVID again? Do the new variants make people sicker? Will vaccines protect against new variants? Deena Beasley,Nancy Lapid Reuters

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So far there is no evidence that BA.2.86 spreads faster or causes more serious illness than previous versions. The CDC said its advice on protecting yourself from COVID remains the same.

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But many countries have drastically reduced testing of patients and their efforts to analyze the genomes of the viruses causing new COVID cases. In that situation, the trajectory of BA.2.86 "doesn't look good right now," given the speed at which new cases are being identified, said Dr. Eric Topol, a genomics expert and director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute in La Jolla, California. ...