Meanwhile, Professor Tom Wenseleers of the Catholic University of Leuven said that BA.2.75.2 and BQ.11 added that these variants have mutations in their spike protein – which helps the virus infect a patient – which allows them to escape immunity gained from BA.5.
Omicron BA.5 became the dominant variant in the UK during the Summer and many have now obtained some immunity after being infected by this variant; Professor Wenseleers says these two variants can evade this immunity.
He added: “Combined with the fact that Covid hospitalisations have already started rising again in the UK, and that the full effect of these variants still isn’t felt, I would say this is not such great news.”
In fact, the overall picture is not positive, with King’s College London academic and founder of the Covid Zoe study Professor Tim Spector warning: “We are in for a bad October” adding that it’s “likely to be worse than the last wave”.
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