'The tools are getting picked off’: An ever-mutating mix of COVID variants means fewer and less effective treatments this fall | Fortune
Fauci this week called the BA.2.75.2 variant “suspicious,” in that it has the potential to develop into a variant of concern for the fall.
In Rajnarayanan’s book, it’s the most formidable of up-and-coming strains because of its spike protein—a feature that allows it to enter cells—binds more tightly to human cells than that of any other variant. By doing so, it makes it more difficult for antibodies to successfully attack.
The variant is picking up mutations that make it more similar to globally dominant BA.5 and the deadly Delta variant of late 2021. And it’s just “a couple of mutations away from picking up increased transmission speed,” Rajnarayanan said.
To make matters worse, the new variant shows “extensive escape” ability, according to a new preprint paper released this week by researchers at the Imperial College in London and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
The paper, which is not yet peer reviewed but has been widely cited by experts, called the variant “the most neutralization-resistant variant evaluated to date,” and said it may effectively evade antibody immunity, built by vaccination and prior infection.