New US lab tests suggest new Covid-19 variant BA.2.86 may be less of a problem than feared

US lab tests suggest new Covid-19 variant BA.2.86 may be less contagious and less immune-evasive than feared | CNN Scientists around the world are fast-tracking lab experiments to try to understand the highly mutated BA.2.86 variant of the new coronavirus. Brenda Goodman CNN

Two teams of US scientists have completed lab experiments testing the antibodies from vaccinated and infected Americans to see how well they might be able to fend off currently circulating variants of the virus that causes Covid-19, including the highly mutated BA.2.86.

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But another variant, FL.1.5.1, which is causing an estimated 15% of new Covid-19 infections in the US, may be a different story. This fast-growing descendant of the XBB recombinant variant has a constellation of mutations that have raised the eyebrows of variant trackers. In lab testing, it was the most immune-evasive...