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Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 are making their move in Australia
The next wave of BA.4 and BA.5 variants of Omicron or B.2* are now making their move in Australia. Their prevalence may be close to 20% right now. 3% over the last 60 days but growing fast. NSW seems to be leading the charge. Hopefully this wave is milder still but there is still a…
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BA.4 and BA.5 variants target young children
This is big. Thx Clare Karacsonyi for sharing to me. It seems like the variants BA.4 and BA.5 which are only just starting in Australia (in NSW and WA last I looked) are affecting children more than any other variant. The number of children admitted to hospital under 9 years of age has overtaken the…
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Omicron XE causing new surge in Covid in Malta
Yes, Omicron XE is still active. Omicron XE is a recombinant of the variants BA.1 and BA.2. BA.2 is very different to BA.1 and virologists are just starting to relabel BA.2 variants in a class of their own. The BA.2 variants should have been given a new Greek letter by the WHO. Recombinant variants are…
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Pre-infection or vaccination will not stop you getting covid from variants BA.4 and BA.5
New data from South Africa shows that although 97% of people had been exposed to covid or had been vaccinated or both, they still have a fifth wave in South Africa. BA.4 and BA.5 are now being sequenced in Australia (NSW and WA), Europe and the USA, so the world is about to go through…
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BA.4 and BA.5 detected in NSW and WA
As the title says BA.4 and BA.5 detected in NSW and WA. I have not seen any recorded cases of BA.4 and BA.5 in Queensland, Victoria, SA or Tasmania as yet. BA.4 and BA.5 will be our next covid wave, once the BA.2.* waves have finished, BA.2.12.1 and BA.2.10.1 look to have some more time…
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Good News at Last. The Covid pandemic could end after BA.4 and BA.5 waves
BA.4 and BA.5 are now known to be even weaker than BA.1 and BA.2, or maybe we have just killed all the vulnerable people already. This is data from South Africa. The only reason I could come up with as to why they let covid rip in Australia was that ‘they’ thought if most people…
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Australians are dumb, SARS-CoV2 was made in a lab as a bioweapon.
I am not too happy Australia has just let covid rip like it is a common cold/flu, because it is not. It was made in a lab and as a bioweapon. That is well established now. Immunity to one variants does not give immunity to other variants. We will suffer the implications later as new…
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Number of enumerated Omicron subvariants now 119
That is where people have got to in updating the number of Omicron variants anyhow. There are more likely 300 to 400 of them, but the number of variants are going too fast to keep track of of all of them. Variants like B.2.23 and BA.2.33 had been seen in Australia and the USA but…
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BA.4 and BA.5 dominate Covid cases in South Africa
BA.4 and BA.5 have almost completely dominated all the Omicron variants now (see below). Compared the rest of the world which is still going through a BA.2 variant wave (see below). Here is the United Kingdom: Here is the USA: The grey area in the bottom right corner is the rapidly growing BA.2.12.1 Here is…
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Any immunity to BA.1 is useless against the new Omicron variants BA.4 and BA.5
Immunity to BA.1 is useless against the new Omicron variants. I have always said that BA.2 is different to BA.1, and BA.4 and BA.5 are more like BA.2 with the extra mutation L452R found on the Delta variant, so I am not surprised by this at all. It is concerning that the immune escape of…
Dr George Christos
covid19 & other Infectious diseases