Arquivo para July 11th, 2022
Covid on the rise and new variants
11
Jul
Covid 19 remains on the rise in the country under the carefree
gaze of the authorities, environments where protocols are respected are rare, and the numbers of new variants have already appeared.
According to a study by Fiocruz, the new subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which were around 8% in May, rose to a percentage of 25% in June, but the issue of lethality is not mentioned, but the transmissibility is as high as the variants previous.
The only quote I found in the medical field was from an immunologist at the Center for Biomedical Innovation at Pioneer Peking University in China, who claims that these variants are “certainly” more infectious compared to the previous ones, but more studies are needed.
The scenario is similar across North America and Europe and this indicates that the two new subvariants should become dominant in the country, also the vaccine efficacy is not clear.
What has helped in Brazil is a less severe winter, which does not worsen respiratory syndromes, but a new polar mass is expected for the middle of the month and the beginning of August.
Internationally, experts are concerned but emphasize that vaccines and boosters are not completely ineffective, Dan Barouch, an immunologist at Harvard Medical School, said in Boston: “Immunity from current vaccines must still provide robust protection. against serious illness, hospitalization and death”, is reassuring.
Even more encouraging news was published by National Geographic, which in addition to reporting that vaccine manufacturers are talking about a specific vaccine against Òmicron and according to Stephen Zeichner, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Virginia Medical Center: “It is very clear that the virus continues to evolve and in the future there is a need for a universal vaccine against covid 19 or even a universal vaccine against coronaviruses.”
Until we have this security, including against new variants, it is important to maintain care.
